The Sindh Government Tuesday extended the curbs imposed on market timings in the province as the power crisis persists across the country. The measure, which will remain in effect from July 17 till August 16, is in response to the prevalent outages, and load shedding of the electricity and seeks to reduce the shortfall between the supply and demand of electricity. A notification issued by the Sindh Home Department said that all the markets, bazaars, shops (wholesale or retail), super or departmental stores, and shopping malls shall be closed by 9:00pm. It added that marriage halls and banquets shall be closed by 10:30pm, while hotels, restaurants, coffee shops, cafes, clubs, gyms, cinemas, theatres, circuses and other places of amusement and entertainment shall be closed by 11:30pm. All the billboards and advertisement hoardings, etc, illuminated through electric connections shall be turned off by 9:00pm, the home department said. There will be no specific closing hours for Saturdays for all types of the categories, but a one-day week off will be observed – either on Sunday or Friday. Medical stores, pharmacies, hospitals, medical clinics, laboratories, petrol pumps, CNG stations, bakeries, milk shops, and all information technology companies dealing with software development are exempted. Virtual or interactive voice-call customer support centres, call centres, postal/courier services, all the factories, Pakistan Security Printing Corporation, National Security Printing Company, commercial ambulance service areas, and tyre repair shops are also exempted from the restrictions. Moreover, bus stations, sabzi mandi, service areas on motorways, roadside shops on highways situated away from populated areas, all food takeaways, food deliveries, online food deliveries to the extent of cooking/packing places only and all warehouses for loading/unloading goods will also remain exempted.