Will the media allow the Big Babus in Islamabad to repeat the trick that they played on us last year? The Big Babus have been trying for decades to have another weekly holiday on Saturdays, besides Sundays. Successive governments resisted their pressure because of the heavy cost to the country. Finally, the present spineless government succumbed to their wish and that too on a false pretext. The media, supposed to be always watchful of public interest, did not raise alarm. Last year, the government, unable to utilize the installed capacity fully, resorted to conservation of electricity to avoid heavy loadshedding. Big Babus latched their wish on to the need for saving energy and managed to get it granted. The second weekly holiday had little to do with saving electricity. The total number of all public servants is only three million. That is 1/60 of the 180 million population of the country. If the electricity shortage is 3000 Mwh, the public servants will be saving just 50 Mwh by not working on Saturdays. Will it be worth it? On the other hand, the loss to the country due to the second holiday, will be huge. Some examples: a) Most of lower level government employees, unable to make both ends meet with their small salaries, take part-time jobs in the evenings. The increased working hours on weekdays will not allow them enough time for the second jobs. b) Most employees, especially officers, will leave office for 2.5-hour break for Friday prayers and not return for an hour or so of the remaining hours. That will give them a weekend of 2.5 days, the longest in the world. c) Most public servants will not have much time left after longer office hours to attend to personal and family needs. d) Millions of people, who visit government offices, will not get service on Saturdays. A case not heard on Friday will be postponed for two days. e) Essential services, such as banks and post offices, will not be available on Saturdays. As most businesses outside major cities close on Fridays, they will not have banking services for three consecutive days. f) Students of schools, colleges, universities and other educational institutions will lose a day every week. Most government schools do not have electricity. How can they save electricity with an additional holiday? On the other hand, children will have much longer hours in school, without food and rest. g) Businesses and industries will be under pressure to have a five-day week. The labour will have to work longer hours daily to meet the specified weekly working hours. As a developing country, we cannot afford the luxury of having two holidays a week. If Big Babus are so desperate to have a weekend longer than a day, they should change the weekly holiday to Saturday. Combined with half day on Friday, they will have a day and a half, without causing any loss to the people and the economy. The paper and electronic media should take up the issue before the Big Babus manage to impose an extra holiday on us this year too. MUHAMMAD ABD AL-HAMEED, Lahore, March 25.