Federal Ministry of Interior is the prime body into Pakistan to issue the list of annual public holidays in the country. Then comes the provincial government who decide at their own grant extra holidays as per local events or special traditions.
According to the Federal Ministry of Interior Circular F.NO.2/4/2016-Public, the following are the public and optional holidays for the Year, 2016.
Gazetted Public Holidays in Pakistan 2017
The following days will be Bank holidays and Banks will remain closed for public but NOT for their employees:
i. 2nd January, 2017 (Monday)
ii. 27thMay, 2017 (Saturday) corresponding to 1stRarnzan 1438(subject to appearance of moon).
iii. 3rd July, 2017 (Monday)
Optional Holidays:
As per the notification of Ministry of Interior: Holidays for Muslim Festivals are subject to appearance of the moon for which a separate notification will be issued.
In addition to National Holidays, regional holidays will be announced by the respective provincial and local governments.
Government servants desiring to avail themselves of Optional Holidays shall take prior permission of the Head of Office concerned and no Government Servant shall be granted more than one optional holiday in the case of Muslims and three optional holidays in the case of non Muslims, in a calendar year.
The grant of this concession should not result in any dislocation of work. In the case of Muslim optional holidays, the number of persons permitted to avail optional holidays should be regulated in a manner so as to adequate staff is available for proper continuance of the work.
The optional holidays are denominational and may be allowed at the discretion of the Head Office, provided that work is not suffered.
A Government Servant should not ordinarily be refused an Optional Holiday that is of religious significance to him and the refusal is likely to decrease the number of such holidays to which she/he is entitled.
