UPPER DIR: The employees of various departments enjoyed a holiday on the occasion of Iqbal Day despite the fact that government had declared it a working day.

The attendance of students in almost all government-run schools remained very low as most of the teachers stayed at homes and enjoyed the unannounced holiday.

Private schools had already announced a holiday on Wednesday.

The provincial organisation of private schools had already taken the decision to observe Nov 9 as holiday.

The government employees criticised both the federal and provincial governments for creating con-fusion about holiday on Nov 9. They said that earlier the government had announced that there would be a public holiday on the occasion and they left for homes after duty time on Tuesday.

They said that they were unaware of the announcement of provincial government that declared Iqbal Day as a working day. `Most of the employees are performing duties at far away stations and they went to their homes to enjoy holiday. It was almost impossible for them to return to their duty stations in the night.

The provincial government made the announcement very late in the evening,` said an employee.

Both students and teachers of state-run schools were confused about the holiday. They were ask-ing about the holiday from one another by telephones. However, some teachers attended the empty schools.

Another government employee said that government could not make a timely decision about the holiday. Confusion was created among the employees about the holiday, he added.

The people, who came to various of fices from far away areas, also got disappointed as most of the employees were not present at the offices.

They said that both their money and time were wasted owing to confusion of government.

They said that such situation should not be created in future and government should make itself clear about taking any decision.