What time is it?

By Emaad Qureshi Emaad.qureshi@gmail.com


“Which time you are asking old time or new time” This was the reply of School teacher when I inquired him about the latest time. This was not the answer i was expecting from him because he was an educated individual, who should know why we have moved our clocks one hour ahead and what are benefits of this system. This prompted me to write something about this issue which would be enough to enlighten the minds of our public.

Ist June 2008 was the date when Pakistan Government introduced Day light saving system and moved the clocks one hour ahead of the previous time. Now it is mid July but still Pakistani nation is confused about this system, including our educated class. We think that this system is just a fruitless exercise having no benefit for us. Our people are still stuck in old time new time confusion.

Before implementing this system Government should have launched a debate on media and there are also issues of publicity and dissemination of information about the DST program among the under-privileged, semi-literate, and illiterate sections of the society, which constitutes a large portion of the country’s population and whose access to the national electronic and print media is limited. Now because of unawareness most Pakistanis still have their watches set on Pre Ist June 2008 time system...

What is Daylight saving system (DST)?

Daylight saving time (DST) is the convention of advancing clocks so that afternoons have more daylight and mornings have less. Typically clocks are adjusted forward one hour near the start of spring and are adjusted backward in autumn. Modern DST was first proposed in 1907 by William Willett

What are benefits?

In summer courtesy Day light saving system more out-door activities possible; more people will travel in daylight which will reduce road accidents. In the countries like Pakistan, where sunrise time in summer and winter varies too much, this system is very useful to take best advantage from sunlight.
In Pakistan where there is lot of difference in sunset time of summer and winter, without this system we were wasting one to two hours of daylight in the morning because these days sunrises at about 5 am and it is complete bright day after one hour of sunrise. When School/college going students will sleep one hour early and rise one hour early then it will save their time and also the energy which was previously used by them at night.

Many industrialists are upbeat about this system; they are expecting after implementation of this system we can save at least 50 to 100 MW of electricity. It will make available one additional hour of sunlight which will save at least 60 minutes of electricity usage and this a better option than the one hour load-shedding.
Every system has its merits-demerits and Daylight saving system is no different. We should also keep in mind that this system is followed by many advanced countries like England for many years; this fact proves that this system can be very useful.

Writer is Pakistani commentator based in Rawalpindi