Pakistan introduced day light saving time (DST)

Starting Saturday midnight, Pakistan will go 30 minutes ahead of India instead of the usual half hour behind.

With Pakistan introducing daylight saving time (DST) from Sunday as a power saving measure, India is set to have one country to its west that will be ahead in time.The anomalous situation will last three months, as DST will remain in force until August 31.Along with DST, which seeks to take advantage of  the longer daylight hours in summer, several other electricity saving measures announced by the government earlier this month will come into force from Sunday.

Pakistan is reeling under a severe power shortage, with production lagging behind estimated power requirement.Shops will close at 9 pm and they will remain shut on Fridays and open on Sundays, the idea being to get people to shop during the day.In government offices air-conditioners will be switched on only at 11am.

Three to 12 hours of load-shedding has been in force for the past three months.But while most agree that energy saving measures are required there is strong opposition to the steps coming into force from Sunday.

However critics point out that an earlier experiment was a failure, as vast number of people were unaware or not able to understand, besides disrupting prayer timings.

Shopkeepers resist the early closing of their shops during summer since shoppers would turn out only in the evening during summer.As far as switching on AC only at 1100 am, people just dismiss it as a gimmick.