DST leads to loss of time in government offices

PESHAWAR: Causing bewilderment among general public, daylight saving time (DST) or the moving of clocks an hour forward is resulting in loss of official time as majority of the government employees arrive late and leave early.The previous three days observations revealed that majority of the government employees report for duty at 9am and leave their offices at 2pm, while the official timing for arrival and leaving has been set at 8am and 2:30pm respectively.The change in timing, the third experience by the government to make maximum use of daylight, has cost the government at least 90-minute office timing without rendering any positive result to save the energy.“Such steps are usually taken in countries getting little benefits from the daylight. But why in Pakistan where the daylight stays at least for 13 hours even in the month of April?” said a senior official at the Civil Secretariat.“It is doubtful that the daylight saving time (DST) formula of the government will bear any fruit, but it has disturbed the routine life as well as office timings,” the official added. Such an experience along with two holidays a week was suggested during the first government of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), but it was shelved for unknown reasons.It was implemented in 2002 for a brief period and then in 2008 with an apparent motive to save energy. “The change in timing has put us in a strange situation as no one can arrive at the office at 8am (actual time 7am), said a class-IV government employee, who has to come from Shabqadar area of Charsadda district for duty in Peshawar.The staffer said he had to get up at 5am and leave his house at 6am to reach the office at exact 8am. Besides the government employees, the time change has also confused the general public and people usually ask for old and new timings while participating in funerals, marriage ceremonies or other functions.“The step has disturbed our routine life without rendering any benefit,” said Jamshed Khan of Haji Camp locality, who was angry for missing funeral of a relative on Thursday. The change has also disturbed students, particularly children attending private schools. Mothers have to hurriedly prepare breakfast for their children an hour early than the usual timings, said Rafaqat Ali, a bank employee.People working in industries are equally perturbed. They say the measure taken by the government was just good for nothing. Muhammad Rasool said he had to travel for one hour in a staff bus to reach his duty station. In this way, he added, he had to get up at 5am (actual time 4am) to prepare himself and catch the staff bus.” Some people suggested that the government should have closed all big markets across the country after dust, if it was really interested in saving energy. Big markets usually start business at 11am (new time) and remain open till late in the night consuming a quantity of energy. The DST-related problems are likely to exacerbate in the coming days as the government is set to increase loadshedding in months ahead in the approaching summer.Most of the people, who presently find about six hours to sleep — 11pm to 5am — would be left with three to four hours to sleep, which can rightly be termed as forty winks, with the expected two to three hours load-shedding during this time.