New Public Holiday in Pakistan Declared to Commemorate Benazir Bhutto's Death

School administrators, event planners, and members of the business world must be scratching their heads and wondering, "Why don't these people give us more advance notice, and can we stay open on this without being lambasted by Benazir devotees?"

On November 14, 2008 plans were unveiled for a 30-day program in remembrance of Ms. Bhutto including an international conference on democracy, a public meeting at Liaquat Bagh in Rawalpindi where she was assassinated last year, and a plan to nominate her for a Nobel Prize.

For places like schools, new public holidays and other disturbances of the calendar can be quite a headache. It's enough of a challenge to plan breaks for major Islamic holidays around the lunar calendar, which changes slightly each year. If a school plans a three-day break for an Islamic holiday and ends up being two days off, students end up getting five days off instead of three. This cuts down on the number of school days needed for accreditation purposes. Schools have been forced to hold classes on Saturdays just to make up for the miscalculation. Aside from that, riots and other public disturbances often disrupt the schedule. A school or business may need to shut down for a few days due to excessive load-shedding of electricity, lack of water supply, or a so called 'black day' being proclaimed by local mullahs or political leaders.

Pakistan has several public holidays that stay the same each calendar year. These include Pakistan Day on March 23rd, Labor Day on May 1st, Independence Day on August 14th, national poet Muhammad Iqbal's birthday on November 9th, and the birthday of Muhammad Ali Jinnah that conveniently falls on December 25th to correlate with the Christian holiday of Christmas. Many people also celebrate New Year's Eve, and the Christian minority celebrates Easter Sunday. Defence Day on September 6th and Kashmir Day on February 5th may also be a days off for most schools, banks, and businesses.

Islamic holidays include the three-day celebration of Eid al-Adha, which falls in early December in 2008, Eid al-Ftr which falls at the end of the Muslim month of fasting, and Eid-e-Milad-un-Nabi, which celebrates the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad. Pakistan also gives days off for the Shia holiday of the 10th of Muharram, which commemorates the death of Hazrat Hussain.

Sometimes the local newspaper will announce a holiday in honor or certain saint or pir with only one day's notice. Small local businesses or rural schools may abide by these 'rules' and close shop for the new holiday, but most larger institutions are not affected.

How does the new holiday affect the schedule? With a holiday already on December 25th, and a holiday proposed for December 27th, employers will be hard-pressed to get employees to come to work on December 26th. Thankfully, this year the 'new' holiday falls on a Saturday, so most schools will not be affected. Since the Eid al-Adha celebration is falling early December this year, many schools will have already returned from winter break before Christmas. When the 25th and 27th of December both fall on weekdays, schools may find it difficult to expect students to show up on the 26th and schedule another three-day holiday into the calendar. This will not make it easy on schools already struggling to get enough school days in before temperatures soar in June.

Sources:

PPP Finalizes Program for Benazir's Death Anniversary

Holidays in Pakistan