Pakistan to adopt daylight saving

By OUR PAKISTAN CORRESPONDENT

Islamabad, May 15: Pakistan will adopt daylight saving policy and observe massive power saving strategy to overcome the energy crisis in the country, the government said.

"The federal Cabinet has approved a six-point plan for dealing with the energy crisis on an emergency basis," minister for water and power Raja Pervaiz Ashraf said at a news conference after attending a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday night. The meeting was chaired by Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani.

Mr Ashraf said the government has prepared a comprehensive plan to overcome load-shedding (saving power through power cuts) within one year.

The government had earlier planned to resolve load-shedding problem in three years. However, the Cabinet decided to handle the situation within one year, Mr Ashraf said.

The six-point agenda includes increasing the daylight saving time by an hour, effective June 1, observing two holidays on separate days by the industrial units, closure of all commercial markets by 9 pm, no electric supply for huge sign boards, switching off of half the street lights, and observing holiday by commercial markets on Fridays instead of Sundays.