Overtake India by half an hour

Pakistan decides to switch to summer time

Whether summer time helps save energy is still an open question. Various calculations show that all possible savings amount to a few percent at best. However, Pakistan, following the example of the northern countries, also decided to change the switches twice a year. Last weekend, the official time in the country moved forward by an hour. Islamabad believes that this will help alleviate some of the chronically difficult situation associated with a lack of electricity.

Unlike the European translation of the hands, Pakistani Daylight Saving Time actually lives up to its name. In this country, a shift forward by an hour was made on the night of June 1, a return to the winter version will occur on August 31, simultaneously with the end of the calendar summer. So the entire savings regime will last only three months. Let us remember that in temperate countries the period of summer time is much longer. Let's say in Russia it lasts seven months - from the end of March to the end of October. Pakistan, by the way, already tried to borrow the European style of changing clocks in 2002, but then this experiment was considered not very successful. Now the country will once again try to accustom people to summer time.

As a result of the switch, Pakistan became one of the few southern countries to use different time regimes depending on the season. Summer time, which was tried to be introduced almost everywhere in the 20th century, survived only in the countries of the temperate zone. It is used in Europe and Egypt, in North America not south of Mexico, in Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay. That is, in those countries where the amount of daylight in winter and summer is significantly different. Of the countries located near the equator, only a few use summer time. Even in Australia, the switches are switched mainly in the southern states; in the north of the country they abandoned this idea.

However, in Pakistan, which is far from a temperate latitude, daylight saving time appears to be considered an economic necessity. There is a shortage of electricity in the country, local power plants cannot cope with increasing consumption, and the power shortage is about 4 thousand MW. This is quite a lot: in order to cover such a shortfall, it is necessary to build, for example, the Bratsk hydroelectric power station or a nuclear power plant like the Leningrad or Balakovo. And Pakistan is unlikely to be able to solve the energy shortage problem with just one switch.

This clock change will create another funny situation. Having moved forward an hour, Pakistan, from a formal point of view, will move to a different time zone and, as it were, change places with neighboring India. The fact is that India uses its own unique standard: the official time of Delhi is five and a half hours later than Greenwich Mean Time, and the hands do not change here. And since Pakistan’s “plus five” turn into “plus six” in the summer, Islamabad is now half an hour more than its neighbors.

As a result, during the summer months, when hypothetically crossing the border between these states, the traveler will have to act contrary to the usual order of things. When moving from west to east, the clock hands will need to be scrolled not forward, but backward, and when returning, add half an hour.

Mikhail MANSKOY