Sindh Secretariat was virtually closed as large number of employees who had proceeded to their homes outside Karachi to celebrate Eid-ul-Azha remained on leave on Monday. It was a long weekend for a large number of people employed in the private and public sector organisations.
Government servants had taken one day's casual leave on Monday to suffix it with three days of Eid holidays and prefix it with December 25, Tuesday, Christmas and Quaid-i-Azam birthday, declared as official holiday for the people of Pakistan. In a way, there were six holidays in a row.
Along with government and private offices, markets also remained closed on Monday. Motor garages, spare parts shops were partially closed. Markets in the Busy Tariq Road shopping area, Sadder and Electronic markets were also partially closed. These areas are likely to remain closed on Tuesday as well. Shop owners of motor garages and repair shops that had opened their shops in the morning closed down their shops by noon, as their workers did not turn up.
Noor Khan, an auto workshop owner, said, "I had opened my workshop in the morning and waited for my boys to come. They did not turn up by noon and left me with no option than to close the shop.
I may not be able to open my workshop on Tuesday as December 25 has already been declared as public holiday and workers seem to be in no mood to work on that day as well." The industrial area also experienced the same situation where labourers' turnout remained thin and many smaller units did not open.