Pakistan decides to close shops, markets by 8:30 pm as power crisis deepens

ISLAMABAD – The federal cabinet has approved the proposal to get shops and markets closed early as part of its energy conservation efforts.

Reports in local media said federal and all provinces have decided to close the markets and bazaars at 8:30 pm as the country faced over 7,440MW of shortfall.

The decision was made in the National Economic Council meeting led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday.

The development comes days after the trader’s union raised objections to the government's proposal of keeping markets closed two days a week.

The federal government earlier this week announced to cut the load shedding of electricity from today to three and a half hours, assuring the nation that the outage will be further reduced in the coming months.

Amid the stern measures, the newly installed government has also restored two-day weekly off at public offices and at educational institutions.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif abolished two weekly offs for government employees in a major administrative decision soon after coming into power however that decision was revoked now as a country of nearly 221 million is facing a huge power crisis.