Power crisis: Sindh govt extends curbs on market timings

KARACHI: The Sindh government has extended the restrictions imposed on market timings in the province for another month in the wake of power crisis across the country, ARY News reported on Tuesday.

According to a notification issued by the Sindh Home Department, all markets, bazaars super or departmental stores, and shopping malls shall be closed by 9:00pm.

It added that marriage halls and banquets shall be closed by 10:30pm, while hotels, restaurants, gyms, cinemas, theatres, and other places of amusement and entertainment shall be closed by 11:30pm.

“All the billboards and advertisement hoardings, illuminated through electric connections, shall be turned off by 9:00pm,” the notification added.

Meanwhile, medical stores, pharmacies, hospitals, laboratories, petrol pumps, bakeries, milk shops, and all information technology companies dealing with software development are exempted.

Moreover, bus stations, sabzi mandi, service areas on motorways, roadside shops on highways situated away from populated areas, all food takeaways, food deliveries and online food deliveries to the extent of cooking/packing places will also remain exempted.

The measure will remain in effect from July 17 till August 16. However, the notification added, there will be no specific closing hours for Saturdays for all types of the categories.

It is pertinent to mention here that the government took the decision in response to the prevalent outages, and load shedding of the electricity and sought to reduce the shortfall between the supply and demand of electricity.