The federal government has allowed temporary exemption of shops, markets and eateries from early closure timing of 8pm, state broadcaster PTV News reported, citing a notification, on Monday.

The Cabinet Division notification dated May 18 states that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has given the approval to exempt “with immediate effect and till May 31” several entities from the closure timings specified in a April 6 notification.

According to the latest notification, all shops, departmental stores, markets, shopping malls, bakeries, tandoors, restaurants and grocery stores have been exempted from the early closure timings for all days of the week.

On April 6, the federal government had announced that all markets across the country, barring Sindh, would close by 8pm throughout the week as part of energy conservation measures amid a global fuel crisis triggered by the US-Israeli war on Iran.

Meanwhile, the closure time for wedding halls, bakeries, restaurants, tandoors and other eateries was set at 10pm.

Days later on April 10, the Sindh government had also notified that all shops, markets and shopping malls in Karachi and other divisional headquarters of the province would close at 9pm throughout the week.

Tandoors (as standalone shops), milk and dairy shops, bakeries, medical stores and pharmacies, medical laboratories, clinics and hospitals, as well as fuel stations, were, however, exempted from the order.

Hotels, restaurants, and food outlets were given the permission to operate between 7pm and 11:30pm for dinner timings and marriage/wedding halls and banquets in the province were given the permission to operate between 8pm and midnight.

However, Sindh, as well as Punjab, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governments lifted closure timing restrictions last week.

Punjab was the first one to make the decision in response to traders’ protests and appeals by the shopping malls association and general public to revise 8pm business closure timings.

The Punjab government granted partial relief on May 15 and lifted the restriction on market timings until June 1. It notified that “all the shops, markets, shopping malls, hotels, restaurants and food outlets are exempted from the prescribed closure timings till June 1, 2026”.

More to follow