Is UAE planning to change its weekend?

Gulf Today, Staff Reporter

A report by UK based Times daily has once again started the debate over UAE’s planned weekend change.

According to the report in Times, UAE is considering Monday-Friday week and marking Saturday and Sunday as official weekend.

So far there is no reaction from the UAE government over the latest Times report, however, in past UAE has clearly denied these speculations.

The State news agency WAM in May this year had issued a statement denying any move by the UAE to switch the weekend.

The photo has been used for illustrative purposes.

WAM then had quoted its executive director Mohammed Jalal Al Raisi as saying that  the news that has been spreading on social media that government was planning to make some changes to the weekend is fake.

“No such news has been issued by the government and people should stop circulating such false information as it is misleading residents,” Al Raisi had said further.

In 2006, the UAE government switched its official Thursday-Friday weekend to Friday-Saturday. This was done to help business relations by increasing shared office hours with Western countries and to provide a more familiar structure for international visitors.

The UAE Public Prosecution confirmed that whoever spreads false rumours to cause panic among people or harm the public interest would be punished by the Federal Penal Code.

The Public Prosecution stated that paragraph 1 of Article 198 of the Federal Penal Code stipulates that whoever intentionally spreads false or malicious news, statements or rumours to disturb public security, cause panic among people or harm public interest will be sentenced to no less than one year in jail.