List of public holidays in Pakistan for 2021

ISLAMABAD: The federal government has announced details of the public and optional holidays for 2021.

A notification for the holidays was issued by the interior ministry on Friday. 

A total of 14 public holidays are included for the general public. It starts from Kashmir Day on February 5.

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At least 22 optional holidays have been announced for government employees. One employee, however, is only allowed to avail one optional holiday if they are Muslim and three if they are non-Muslim.

The list include:

• February 5th (Friday) - Kashmir Day
• March 23rd (Tuesday) - Pakistan Day
• May 1st (Saturday) - Labour Day
• May 14th, 15th and 16th (Friday, Saturday and Sunday) – Eid-ul-Fitr *
• July 21st, 22nd and 23rd (Wednesday, Thursday and Friday) – Eid-ul-Azha *
• August 14th (Saturday) - Independence day
• August 18th, 19th (Wednesday and Thursday) – Ashura Muharram *
• October 19th (Tuesday) - Eid-i-Milad *
• December 25 (Saturday) - Quaid-i-Azam Day/Christmas
• December 26 (Sunday) - Day after Christmas (only for Christians)

* Subject to appearance of moon

Bank holidays

The bank will be closed on the following dates for public dealing, however, the employees of the banks/DFIs/MFBs will report to work as usual.

• 1st January, 2021 (Friday)
• 14th April, 2021 (Wednesday) corresponding to 1st Ramazan 1442AH
• 1st July, 2021 (Thursday) 

Here is a list of the date and days of the holidays announced for 2021: 

“The 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 for Non-Muslims, in a calendar year,” read the notification.

It added that the grant of this concession should not result in any dislocation of work.

The notification reminded that in the case of Muslim optional holidays, the number of persons permitted to holidays should be regulated in a manner so that 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 of Office, provided that work does not suffer,” it said.

“A Government Servant should not ordinarily be refused an Optional Holiday that is of religious significance and the refusal is likely to decrease the number of such holidays to which she/ he is entitled.”