AS a government employee I am happy that every weekend is now a long holiday and a very long resting period under the new five-day week. But I have a duty to my conscience to make a confession.

The two-day weekend makes an enjoyable life, leaving office at 11am on Friday and not reporting back to work until 10am on Monday. On top of that, every holiday now brings three to five days of long weekends. Ashura weekend is the latest example. But people tell me how miserable they feel now. The office work of two days now takes about two weeks (10 working days) under the five-day work arrangement. How sad, the work productivity is down to 25 to 30 per cent.

We need more work in this country and not more holidays. My conscience pricks me and demands more work from me. We must revert to the six-day-work-week system. Our country definitely demands that from us.

DASTAGIR KHAN Rawalpindi

Untold misery THE five-day week is causing much misery to people. Personally I am suffering in a very painful way. I have some financial transaction to make in connection with my business dealings abroad. This involves office work plus banking services. Our officers are never in a mood to do some honest duties. Then we are now faced with office closures from 10.30am on Fridays to late morning on Mondays. That takes away a huge amount of time that we could have goaded/begged our officers to take care of our paperwork.

Any holiday at the start of a week means office closures for three, four or five days depending on the number of holidays. This Ashura weekend was the latest example.

We again appeal to the government to have mercy on us and let the business of state move forward a bit. That can only be achieved if we immediately revert to our previous system of six days’ work-week system. This is an urgent appeal keeping the welfare of the nation foremost.

DILDAR HUSSAIN Islamabad