Observing the tragedy of Army Public School Peshawar where around 150 students were martyred, Deputy Commissioners of Islamabad, Lahore and Rawalpindi have declared December 16 as a holiday. The decision was made on the sad occasion of the terrorist attack which had taken place on this very day in 2014, in which six terrorists killed almost 150 students and teachers who were innocent, and this tragic incident had put the nation into deep pain and eventually, the National Action Plan (NAP) was launched.
All the schools and colleges private and public will remain closed in these districts but universities in Lahore will remain open. At the same stage, Sindh government has announced two days shut down of the business and other activities on December 25 and 26. The 25th of December is Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s birthday and the 26th of December is fixed as a CHRI Christmas holiday for Christian employees. These commemorative dates are even important as the State Bank of Pakistan has also declared its bank holidays on December 25.