Time change from 15th April is a sick joke with the people of Pakistan. If anything, it proves beyond doubt, elections or no elections, democracy or no democracy, bureaucracy is reigning supreme as bureaucracy including millions of employees of government and semi government organisations, are the only and ultimate beneficiaries of time change.
It will provide them a "relief" of nearly two hours from work everyday. Ministers are just a tool in the hands of our very strong and well-entrenched bureaucracy. They normally dish out what the bureaucracy want, as most ministers are totally illiterate and have little or no knowledge of the subjects and the ministries they are heading. As always it is square pegs in round holes.
They are busy gloating over the fact they are ministers attending functions appearing on meaningless TV talk shows dishing out one nonsense after another along with other equally illiterate "experts" of the talk-shows. The tragedy of Pakistan is that the opposition is no better.
Their level of literacy or illiteracy is the same - may be worse specially when you hear people like Nawaz Sharif, Ehsan Iqbal, Khawaja Asif, Ishaq Dar, Chaudhry Nisar and company. In this case of time change, it is obvious, a very attractive summary was prepared by some do-all of ministry of power painting a rosy picture that time change will bring about milk and honey in the power situation in Pakistan and will end up saving an impossible and improbable 250 MW per day as reported in the press.
Sheer nonsense. A typical figure fudging exercise. Generally present time of government and semi government organisations are 8:00 am to 4:00 pm. It is common knowledge that even by 9 or 9:30 nearly 25 to 30% of the staff and officers do not reach office and at least half an hour to 45 minutes before 4:00 pm (closing time) nearly 50% are home bound.
Based on this when from 15th April office timings are 7:00 am to 3:00 pm according to old time, a safe guess is that nearly 50% of the staff and officers will not be in office at the start of the day and at the end of the day. Imagine a net loss of millions of man-hours every day. A drastic reduction in the work output which, I am sure, has not been highlighted in the proposal for time change.
So the time change, as long as it lasts, will be real party time for our bureaucracy and employees of government and semi government organisations, while the nation will continue to suffer additional scheduled and unscheduled loadshedding and breakdowns. People of Pakistan need to know that major countries in the area, like India, China and Japan do not resort to time change.
India tried approximately 15 or 20 years earlier and abandoned the time change within three weeks as impractical, unworkable and economically not feasible. In our case, time change was tried in the year 2002 and was never adopted in the following years because as per the statement of the then Minister of Information Sheikh Rashid, the time change instead of saving energy there was an increase in the consumption of energy and therefore the system was not practised in 2003. If Sheikh Rashid is reading this, I would request him to respond.
It is interesting to note that advancement of clock was first practiced in the world in 1917 by Australia and they gave it up within one month and have never practiced it again. In Britain and Europe, winter days become abnormally short and summer days as long as 18 hours. With DST, those countries daily gain one additional hour of daylight during summer which compensates for their very short winter days. In this way, official business starts there earlier by one hour during summer and, thus, much time is available to convert each single day into a two-shift working day.
That is why those people adopted DST. The most puzzling aspect of our DST observance is our motive for it. We do it to save electricity. Nowhere in the world is DST practiced to save electricity because one additional hour of daylight means more time to work and thus more electricity is utilised. It has been claimed in a television interview by the Director General Power that 75 countries in the world practice advancement of clock every year.
I seriously doubt this claim and I would request you to please ask the Director General Power to provide the list of 75 countries and I will take it upon myself to verify from those 75 countries the veracity of this claim of Director General. To my knowledge, Europe, America, Canada and may be a few more countries in the world practice this system of advancement of clock.
The advancement of clock has disturbed very widely the normal life of the people of Pakistan without any benefit to Pakistan or to the people of Pakistan. Normally 80% of our population is uneducated and illiterate and therefore it is impossible for them to comprehend and implement this time change in their daily life. Even among the 20% of the population, which is literate a vast majority finds this exercise of time advancement totally unnecessary as it will not bring any positive impact on the power situation.
As a result of advancement of clock many mosques in the cities and in the villages throughout Pakistan are in total confusion. You are fully aware that nearly 70 to 80 % people who go to the mosques for prayers belong to the poor and uneducated class. Similarly Imams and Khateebs in cities and specially in the rural areas are not educated enough to comprehend the time change.
As a result many mistakes have come to light with regard to prayers time in mosques. During Ramazan which will start approximately by end August, by the time the Taravih will come to an end, the time according to the new clock will be 11:30 to 12:00 in the night. Many Rozadars take dinner after Taravih.
Now you can imagine, when a Rozadar will come back from Taravih after 11:30 or 12:00 pm, when he will finish his dinner? When he will go to bed for sleep? And when he will get up for Sehri? There is hardly any time left. So on this account also this advancement of clock is totally terribly impractical, inconvenient and unfeasible measure.
Similarly for school children it is yet another disaster. Millions of families who use public transport to send their children to schools are finding it really very difficult to reach school on time. The vans who use to pick up children from their homes at 6:30 am (according to old time) are now picking up children at 5:30 am (according to old time) so that the children can reach school on time.
Even the business and industry, specially Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry has opposed the advancement of clock on the ground that it will not produce the desired results and on the contrary will lead to total confusion by disturbing the normal business life of commerce and industry.
The solution of power shortage does not lie in advancement of clock. This you will please agree is a gimmick of this government to hide their inefficiency, their failures and their incompetence. The solution lies in:
i- Rapidly increasing power production in Pakistan by offering good incentives to local and foreign investors;
ii- By eradicating power theft in the rich and middle-class and poor areas of Pakistan. It is a common knowledge that Kundas in the poor areas are very common phenomena.
iii- The rich and famous of Pakistan are known to be the biggest stealers of power. A few years ago one newspaper had published list of some important politicians who were using ACs, fans, TVs, computers and other electrical appliances and yet paying a very small amount monthly to the power company. It was said that by paying bribe they had tampered with the electric meters to ensure that their bills remain within their control.
iv- The industry is stealing power. Here also a strong check and trial is required. Only if the power theft is controlled and eradicated, I am confident, that there will never be any power shortage in Pakistan. There is no need for advancement of clock as this is a harassment to the ordinary people of Pakistan. It gives no benefit to Pakistan or to the people of Pakistan.
Europe is a major business partner of Pakistan for imports and exports. At present, the time difference between Europe and Pakistan is 3 hours. If the offices open in Europe at 9 O'clock it will be 12 O'clock in the afternoon in Pakistan and keeping in view the present closing time we get a clear 5 hours to deal with Europe.
In case we resort to the time change the time difference will increase to 3/4 hours and we will lose a precious one extra hour in case of Europe, thereby affecting our import and export trade seriously. Last year, it was noticed and many interviews were telecast by some TV channels that the time change has caused immense psychological distress to millions of people in homes and offices, educational institutions etc-etc.
Added to this, it was tremendous confusion of old time and new time. Every time when there was a meeting or an event or an occasion there was always an exchange between people whether the event is according to old time or new time. People of Pakistan are patriotic beyond any doubt and are prepared to sacrifice their all for Pakistan provided leadership is able to prove they are honest, sincere and selfless and set an example of sacrifice themselves before asking the people.
But then may be this is asking too much of our leadership both in the government and opposition who have been in power twice before and the net result has been loot and plunder of a magnitude unknown to any civil society in the world. Frankly the present day miseries of people of Pakistan are only and only due to yesteryears plunder of PPP, PML(N) and their coalition partners.
People of Pakistan are genuinely fed up with the government which to-date, in spite of lapse of more than one year, has no visible achievement to its name. The charter of democracy is in fact charter of once again loot and plunder.
The attitudes and performances and non performances of the government and opposition and its coalition partners are a scramble for whatever is left of Pakistan and once again decamp with it to foreign lands where billions are already safely stacked in banks and properties. The time change is a gimmick to fool the people of Pakistan to buy time to survive a few more months. The time change does not help Pakistan or the people of Pakistan. It must be reverted forthwith. President Zardari is requested to act.