All Deputy Commissioners (DCs) of Karachi have been asked to present a compliance report of the implementation plan regarding the closure of markets at 8:30 pm and closure of restaurants and wedding halls at 10 pm, as per a letter written by Commissioner Karachi Iqbal Memon on Saturday.
According to Aaj News, the move is a part of the government's energy conservation plan. Before local bodies elections, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had issued directives for early closure of markets, restaurants, and wedding halls.
DCs in other cities of Sindh have also received similar letters.
Earlier, PM Shehbaz had said that if markets did not close on the decided time, power supply to them would be cut after 8:30 pm and shopkeepers would be left to arrange electricity on their own.
The federal cabinet had approved the conservation plan in January which Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said would save Rs62 billion.
He stressed the importance of making lifestyle change with reference to energy consumption, saying, “Our habits are different from the rest of the world; we produce our own energy instead of natural energy, which incurs production costs.”
He said that the federal cabinet has approved the implementation of the energy conservation plan on the recommendation of the Power Division, which were to be implemented immediately throughout Pakistan.
He added that 29,000 MW of electricity is used in summer in Pakistan - 5,300 MW of electricity comes from air-conditioning and 12,000 MW from use of inefficient fans - while 12,000 MW is used in winter months.
Following the announcement of the plan last month, markets in major cities of Pakistan spurned the government directive .
Reuters said its reporters in the nation’s largest cities of Lahore, Karachi and Peshawar, saw almost all major markets and malls staying open beyond the cut-off time.
“We outright reject this plan,” Mohammad Ishaq, president of the Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry, a traders association in the northwestern city of Peshawar, had told Reuters at the time, adding that businesses that already faced security issues and energy shortages, would resist attempts to enforce it.