NAB, SBP go contrary to federal govt’s six-day weekday decision
NAB and SBP have opposed the federal government’s decision for six-day weekday and decided to retain Saturday holiday.
ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) have opposed the federal government’s decision for a six-day weekday and decided to retain the Saturday holiday despite Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s order.
The NAB and SBP issued notifications for observing the Saturday holiday instead of considering it a working day despite getting PM Shehbaz Sharif’s order to implement the six-day workweek.
Amid the political battle between the federal government and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), two major autonomous institutions including the anti-corruption watchdog and the central bank rejected the federal government’s decision for declaring Saturday a working day.
Yesterday, the federal government had announced to change the official working hours of government offices from 8 am to 3 am and also decided not to restore the Saturday holiday. Later, the Establishment Division also issued a notification with the approval of PM Shahbaz Sharif.
The new notification stated the reduction in office hours at the government offices, whereas, the office timing on Friday will be 8 am to 1 pm.
On directions of the NAB chairman, the office timing at the headquarters and regional offices will be 8:30 am to 4:30 pm from May 9, whereas, Saturday and Sunday will be observed as holidays.
The office timing in banks, according to the new notification, will be 9 am to 5:30 pm while namaz and lunch break will be 1:30 pm to 2:15 pm. On Fridays, the banking hours will be 9 am to 6 pm.
Analysts said that the government is already facing difficulties on the economic front besides facing strong resistance from the PTI. At the same time, it faced violations of orders from the NAB and SBP.
