KARACHI: There was much confusion and dilemma among the people about what would remain open soon after the Sindh government announced on Monday a public holiday to honour former prime minister and Pakistan Peoples Party founder and chairman Zulfikar Ali Bhutto on his 38th death anniversary, which falls on April 4 (today).

As parents and students called up schools and school administrations to find out if their educational institutions would also be closed on account of the death anniversary, those students appearing for their Secondary School Certificate exams heaved a sigh of relief as there was already no paper planned in the schedule for April 4 by the Board of Secondary Education Karachi (BSEK).

“We took care to keep this day clear in our examination schedule as we already anticipated that Mr Bhutto’s death anniversary would be observed as an official holiday,” the BSEK spokesman told Dawn.

Meanwhile, exams would be held as per schedule at the Federal Urdu University of Arts, Science and Technology, despite the university remaining closed on Tuesday.

The University of Karachi and NED University also issued notifications about their closure as did Dawood University of Engineering and Technology.

Several other private universities in the city also decided to remain closed on Tuesday, such as Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology and Greenwich University, which posted the notification on its website. But there were also some institutions which decided to remain open.

Some private schools too were in two minds till late Monday evening about whether to remain open or not. Still, most decided to comply with government orders.

It being a provincial holiday, however, all banks — which come under the federal government — will remain open, said State Bank of Pakistan’s chief spokesperson Abid Qamar. All Sindh government offices will remain closed though.

Published in Dawn, April 4th, 2017