Pakistan Public Holidays 2025-26: Complete Calendar by Province

Federal Public Holidays for 2025-26

The Government of Pakistan notifies a set of public holidays each year that apply to all federal government offices and, by extension, form the baseline for private sector leave calendars. For the fiscal year 2025-26, the confirmed federal public holidays are:

These seven dates form the non-religious core of the Pakistani public holiday calendar. They are fixed by date and do not shift with the lunar calendar.

Religious Observances (Subject to Moon Sighting)

Pakistan follows the Islamic lunar calendar for religious holidays. The exact dates are confirmed each year by the Central Ruet-e-Hilal Committee based on moon sighting and may vary by one or two days from advance estimates. The religious observances for 2025-26 are approximately:

Employers should monitor official announcements from provincial governments and the Ministry of Interior for confirmed dates as each observance approaches. HRMS systems that allow custom holiday calendars make it straightforward to update dates when notifications are issued.

Province-Specific Observances

After devolution under the 18th Amendment, provinces have authority to declare additional public holidays for events of local significance. The current province-specific observances are:

Sindh

• Sindh Cultural Day (Sindh Festival Day): 5 December. Observed in Sindh only, typically a public holiday for government offices. Private sector employers in Sindh should verify current gazette notification for each year.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

• KP has at times declared additional days of observance around major religious events, particularly during Muharram. Employers with operations in KP should follow the provincial government notifications.

Balochistan

• Balochistan Foundation Day: Observed to mark the founding of Balochistan province. Declared by the provincial government, usually applicable to government establishments.

Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir

• GB and AJK maintain separate holiday lists that include their respective founding and autonomy-related observances in addition to federal holidays. Employers operating in these regions should obtain the annual notifications from the respective territorial administrations.

Optional and Restricted Holidays

The federal government and most provincial governments issue a list of optional or restricted holidays each year. These are observances that an employee may take with prior approval, typically choosing a limited number from the list (often two per year). These commonly include religious observances for minority communities such as Holi, Diwali, and Easter, as well as some regional cultural days.

Employers are not required to give all restricted holidays; they are required to allow employees who qualify to take a specified number from the list on request.

Factory Act Provisions on Public Holidays

The Factories Act 1934 contains specific provisions governing public holidays for factory workers that employers in manufacturing must observe:

• Every factory worker is entitled to a minimum of 10 paid public holidays per year. These must be chosen from the list of gazette-notified public holidays and must include Independence Day and Pakistan Day.
• The list of public holidays applicable to the factory must be displayed at a prominent location in the factory premises before the commencement of each year.
• If a worker is required to work on a public holiday, they must be given compensatory leave on another day within the same month or paid at the overtime rate, depending on the applicable provincial rules.
• The factory must maintain a register of workers who worked on public holidays and the compensatory arrangements made.

Failure to comply with the Factories Act holiday provisions can result in fines during labor inspections. The Act applies to premises employing 10 or more workers where a manufacturing process is carried on.

Saturday and Sunday Carry-Over Rules

When a public holiday falls on a Sunday, most employment frameworks provide for a compensatory day off on the following Monday. This rule applies broadly in government and organized private sector establishments. The key points are:

• If a federal public holiday falls on a Sunday, the next working day (Monday) is typically observed as the holiday in most sectors.
• If a company operates Monday to Friday and a holiday falls on a Saturday, the company may observe it on the preceding Friday. This is governed by company policy and applicable standing orders.
• Religious holidays that span multiple days, such as Eid, may shift their start by a day if the moon sighting falls later than predicted. The gazette notification confirms the adjusted dates and these take precedence over published estimates.

Full Monthly Calendar with Federal Status

How to Auto-Sync Holidays in Peoplifi

Peoplifi includes a national holiday calendar that is updated each year with gazette-notified federal holidays. The setup process is straightforward:

1. Select your national calendar: In the Attendance or Leave module, select Pakistan as the base country calendar. Federal holidays are pre-loaded.
2. Choose your provincial calendar: Select the province where each office or facility is located. Province-specific holidays are added on top of the federal list.
3. Add company-specific holidays: Any additional days your company observes, such as a founder day or a discretionary day off, can be added as custom company holidays.
4. Sync to leave and payroll: Once holidays are configured, Peoplifi automatically marks those days as non-working in leave calculations and attendance reports, and excludes them from working-day counts in payroll.

When lunar calendar dates are confirmed, you can update the estimated dates in Peoplifi with one click. All affected leave records and attendance reports update automatically.

Keep your holiday calendar accurate and your payroll compliant. Try Peoplifi free for your team.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do private sector companies have to follow all government-notified public holidays?

Private sector companies are required to observe at minimum the public holidays mandated under applicable labor law for their sector. For factories, the Factories Act specifies a minimum of 10 paid public holidays. Companies often observe more as a matter of policy. The government notification sets the list from which companies must choose; the exact days observed are confirmed in the company standing orders.

What happens if Eid falls during an employee annual leave period?

Public holidays that fall within an approved annual leave period are generally not counted as annual leave days. The employee is entitled to take those days as public holidays, meaning the annual leave balance is preserved. This is the standard interpretation under most Pakistani employment frameworks, though some companies may have specific policies.

Are non-Muslim employees entitled to take religious holidays for their own faith?

Yes. Non-Muslim employees in Pakistan are entitled to observe their own religious holidays under the restricted holidays framework. The employer must allow them to take a certain number of restricted holidays from the officially published list, which includes observances for Hindu, Christian, and other communities.

Can an employer substitute a different day off in place of a gazette-notified public holiday?

In some sectors, collective bargaining agreements or registered standing orders permit a company to observe a holiday on a different day by mutual agreement with workers. However, unilateral substitution by the employer without worker agreement and without amendment to standing orders is not permitted.

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