Only 50 working days in the year!

Working days



Sir: Every now and then, the Sindh government declares an extra holiday before a public holiday. It does not occur to the authorities that, unlike them, there are people who have to work hard to make both ends meet. On Thursday, January 24, 2013, many people had important appointments in connection with their businesses; lawyers had to go to court for hearings in cases that have been pending for many years and exporters had urgent shipments to make. However, the Chief Minister suddenly decided to declare a holiday on 11th Rabi-ul-Awwal. Perhaps one of his relatives wanted four holidays to go to his native village on Thursday and return on Monday (since Friday, already an official holiday, would be followed by Saturday and Sunday, the weekly holidays). I think the Sindh government should immediately declare only certain days of the year on which work should be done. These days — no more than 50 in the whole year — should be designated as ‘working days’, and no one should be allowed to call a strike on these 50 days. On no account should a holiday be declared on any of these 50 days.

SHAKIR LAKHANI
Karachi
Sunday, January 27, 2013