Public holidays schedule for 2025 announced

ISLAMABAD: The federal government has announced scheduled public holidays for the year of 2025 which includes holidays for national, Islamic and minority festivals.

According to a notification issued by the Cabinet Division on Monday, dates highlighting various occasions will be observed throughout the year have been mentioned in the holidays calendar. However for holidays concerning Islamic events, the dates will be subjected to the appearance of the moon and separate notifications would be issued closer to the lunar calendar dates.

For government servants, no optional holiday shall be granted without prior permission of the head of the respective organisation concerned.

Subsequently, no government official would be allowed more than one optional holiday in the case of Muslims and three optional holidays for non-Muslims in a calendar year.

“The grant of this concession should not result in any dislocation of work. In the case of Muslim optional holidays, the number of persons permitted to avail optional holidays should be regulated in a manner so that adequate staff is available for proper continuance of the work,” it the notification further stated.

The notice also clarified that the optional holidays are denominational and may be allowed at the discretion of the head of the organisation, provided that work did not suffer, and that a government servant should not ordinarily be refused an optional holiday that is of religious significance.

With the public notification released, the citizens have been given a clarity to plan their festivals and offs accordingly.

The detailed holidays have been mentioned below:

• Kashmir Day will be observed on February 5, 2025, while Pakistan Day will be observed on March 23, 2024.
• Eid-ul-Fitr to be celebrated on March 30, 31 and April 1 of 2025
• Labour Day on May 1, while Youm-e-Takbeer will be observed on May 28th of 2025.
• Eid-ul-Azha on June 7, 8 and 9 of 2025
• Ashura will be observed on July 5 and 6 of 2025.
• Independence Day will be celebrated on August 14 of 2025.
• Eid Milad-un-Nabi will be celebrated on September 5 and 6 of 2025.
• Iqbal Day will be observed on November 9

Other days to be observed as optional holidays for minorities are Holi, Dulhandi, Baisakhi, Easter, and Eid-e-Rizwan among others.