Pakistan tries out daylight saving

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Pakistan is introducing daylight saving time for the first time this weekend, becoming the only country in South Asia to change its clocks for the summer.

Clocks were moved forward an hour, to GMT plus six hours, at midnight on Saturday (1900 GMT), the government said.

Daylight saving is a common practice in Europe, North America and Oceania, with around 80 countries switching forward their clocks in summer to make the most of daylight and save energy.

But it is less often practiced in Asia and Africa, with South Asian nations such as India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal not moving their clocks on a seasonal basis. Equatorial and tropical countries with lower latitudes do not observe daylight saving time since the daylight hours are similar during every season.

The Pakistan government said it would try the practice for a year, and if people liked it, they would adopt it annually.

Benefits include more time for leisure after work and lower power consumption, it said.

Start day early

Around 70 per cent of Pakistan's people live in rural areas and they are unlikely to see much difference as many start their day at least two to three hours ahead of the urban population to complete as much work as possible before the heat of the day.

The United States, Canada, Cuba and Mexico also move their clocks forward this weekend as the northern summer approaches.

European clocks moved forward last weekend while in the southern hemisphere Australia put its clocks back an hour as it moves towards winter.

Pakistan's time change means it will be 30 minutes ahead of India, which stretches more than 2,000 km (1,250 miles) to the east.

Pakistan's western neighbor, Iran, went to summertime last month but war-torn Afghanistan to the north does not move its clocks seasonally.