MUZAFFARABAD – Higher Education Department of Azad Jammu and Kashmir announced Saturday and Sunday as weekly holidays for all government and private colleges under its administrative control.
Under the new schedule, colleges will remain open from Monday to Friday, with classes, academic activities and other routine work continuing during the five working days.
The department formally directed college administrations to implement the new schedule immediately, effectively ending the previous weekly arrangement and introducing a standard five-day working week across the colleges under its jurisdiction.
The move brings AJK colleges in line with the five-day working-week system already followed by educational institutions in several other parts of Pakistan, where Saturday and Sunday are generally observed as weekly holidays.
As AJK announcement triggered fresh attention over weekly holidays at educational institutions, a separate notification circulating widely on social media has created confusion in KP.
The viral document claimed that all public and private schools, colleges and universities across KP would remain closed every Friday and Saturday for two months as part of fuel-saving measures.
The purported notification further claimed that educational activities would continue during the remaining four days of the week, with institutions allegedly shifting to a shortened weekly schedule. The claim sparked confusion among students, parents and teachers, with many seeking confirmation over whether the provincial government had approved the proposed change.
KP Elementary and Secondary Education Department rejected the circulating notification as fake, making clear that it was not an official government order. The department’s clarification means that the viral claim of Friday-Saturday holidays for KP educational institutions should not be treated as an approved change in the official schedule.
The development comes amid heightened public attention to fuel-conservation measures and working-week changes, with several misleading notifications also circulating online in recent months. Authorities have repeatedly urged the public to rely on verified government announcements rather than viral documents shared on social media.
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