ISLAMABAD: The federal government on Monday allowed temporary exemption of shops, markets and eateries from early closure timing of 8pm.

The Cabinet Division notification, issued on Monday, states that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has given the approval to exempt “with immediate effect and till May 31” several entities from the closure timings specified in the April 6 notification.

Consequently, the deputy commissioner office also issued a notification.

According to the latest notification, all shops, departmental stores, markets, shopping malls, bakeries, tandoors, restaurants and grocery stores have been exempted from the early closure timings for all days of the week.

PM approves temporary relief ahead of Eidul Azha

The move came only one week before the Eidul Azha falling on May 27.

On Saturday, the traders’ community in the federal capital had demanded relaxation in the lockdown just like in provinces.

The traders said businessmen had always supported and cooperated with the government to implement policies in the best interest of the country.

Sarfraz Mughal, former president of the Traders Welfare Association Super Market, had stated that the government decided to impose a lockdown without consulting the businessmen, which was accepted by the business community.

On April 6, the federal government had announced that all markets across the country, barring Sindh, would close by 8pm throughout the week as part of energy conservation measures amid a global fuel crisis triggered by the US-Israeli war on Iran.

The closure time for wedding halls, bakeries, restaurants, tandoors and other eateries was set at 10pm.

Days later on April 10, the Sindh government had also notified that all shops, markets and shopping malls in Karachi and other divisional headquarters of the province would close at 9pm throughout the week.

Tandoors, milk and dairy shops, bakeries, medical stores and pharmacies, medical laboratories, clinics and hospitals, as well as fuel stations, were, however, exempted from the order.

Hotels, restaurants, and food outlets were given the permission to operate between 7pm and 11:30pm for dinner timings and marriage/wedding halls and banquets in the province were given the permission to operate between 8pm and midnight.

However, the provincial governments of Sindh, as well as Punjab, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa lifted closure timing restrictions last week.

The Punjab was the first one to make the decision in response to traders’ protests and appeals by the shopping malls association and general public to revise 8pm business closure timings.

The Punjab government granted partial relief on May 15 and lifted the restriction on market timings until June 1. It notified that “all the shops, markets, shopping malls, hotels, restaurants and food outlets are exempted from the prescribed closure timings till June 1, 2026.”

The next day, Sindh, KP and Balochistan governments also relaxed the restrictions.

While the notification by the Balochistan Home Department said the restrictions had been relaxed till June 1, the KP and Sindh governments withdrew the restrictions without setting any timeline.

Published in Dawn, May 19th, 2026