PESHAWAR: A fake interior ministry notification declaring Iqbal Day a holiday on Tuesday duped the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa administration department, which considered it real and prepared a summary on its basis to declare Nov 9 (Wednesday) a public holiday.

In the summary, a copy of which is available with Dawn, the department asked the chief minister to declare Nov 9 a public holiday.

A senior official at the chief minister`s secretariat denied receiving the summary.

He said the administration department was about to put up the summary to the chief minister when it learned about the fake interior ministry notification about Nov 9 public holiday and therefore, it didn`t move the summary.

The summary added to a day full of hilarious events, which left parents, schoolchildren and government employees confused all over the province. Most of them expected a day off on Nov 9.

Last year, the KP government didn`t follow the federal government`s decision of not declaring Iqbal Day a holiday.

On the direction of the ruling PTFs chief, Imran Khan, the chief minister had announced Nov 9 a public holiday. The summary noted that the ministry of interior has notified November 9 as public holiday on the occasion of Iqbal Day.

It added that the provincial government generally follows annual calendars and notifications issued by the federal government and therefore, the administration department proposes that in pursuance of the press release issued by the ministry of interior Islamabad, November 9 may be notified as public holiday on Iqbal Day.

The summary was initiatedby the administration secretary and signed by the chief secretary.

However, after daylong confusion, adviser to the chief minister on information and public relations Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani announced in the evening that the provincial government hadn`t declared Wednesday (today) as a public holiday.

He asked the people not to believe rumours about the Iqbal Day holiday and said no such official announcement had been made.

`All government departments and educational institutions will remain open tomorrow (Wednesday),` he said. The interior ministry also denied issuing the holiday`s notification for Nov 9.

The uncertainty surrounding the holiday also perplexed the administrations of private schools in the provincial capital as some of them announced holiday for Wednesday but others didn`t.

Some of the big names like Peshawar Model School and College and Bloomfield announced holiday, while others announced to remain open on Iqbal Day.

The Peshawar Model School and College sent a message to parents of the children enrolled there saying the campus would remain closedonWednesdayandreopen on Nov 10.

Administration secretary Hassan Mehmood Yousfazai was not available despite repeated contacts. Local resident Qasim Khan criticised the government for keeping the people confused about the holiday all through the day.

`It all shows a complete lack of sense on part of the government machinery as well as the breakdown of administrative system,` he said. The resident asked how a `sane government` could allow such things to happen under its watch.