Most skip offices, schools after Eid holidays

Islamabad: Most government offices in the federal capital wore quite a deserted look on Friday, the first working day after the three-day official Eidul Azha break.

The reason was that a large number of employees either got a leave for the day to enjoy extended rest from work or skipped duty without permission. Ironically, most of those, who were in attendance, left in the afternoon for Friday prayers but didn’t return though the work hours formally ended at 5pm.

They spent most of their time chatting away about their Eid-related activities and post-election events, especially the government’s institutional reforms. They thought that the government should’ve declared Friday, too, a public holiday. The official told ‘The News’ most of their colleagues had gone to ancestral towns to celebrate Eid with family members, while the others had taken families to hill stations for excursion as respite from humid weather.

Normalcy will return to offices after weekend, they said. Things were no different in the city’s government schools, which, too, reported thin attendance. As fewer students and teachers showed up and it’s a half day, no serious business happened.

Parents said the government had better extended Eid holidays until Friday to help schoolchildren make the most of the religious festival. They said thin attendance in schools on the first day on Friday clearly showed that the government’s three-day Eid announcement didn’t sit well with the parents, who didn’t send children to school and let them continue enjoying Eid.