Govt notifies ‘new working hours’

ISLAMABAD: Federal Government has issued the notification of new working hours for government offices.

According to notification, the working hours of the government offices will be from 9 am to 5 pm from Monday to Friday.

The announcement of government decision regarding new working hours was made by Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry on August 24.

The minister had said that the government decided to keep Saturday a holiday but the office hours have been extended so all government employees will now work from 9AM to 5PM instead of the previous timing 8AM-4PM.

Rumours were doing rounds that the government will announce a 48-hour (six-day) working week but the minister announced that the government has instead changed the office hours and will also make sure the bureaucrats duly attend offices.

Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry has said that the proposal regarding office hours had suggested that they should be from 8am to 3pm.

However, the cabinet decided that the working hours should be from 9am to 5pm. “Although earlier the office timings were 8am to 4pm, people used to come to their offices at 9am. Therefore, we have decided that the new working hours should be 9am to 5pm,” he added.

“There is a trend among government employees that they normally don’t return to work after Friday prayers but we will make sure all government employees complete their work hours,” said Chaudhry.