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Pakistan country pack — this guide covers Pakistan-specific statutory rules. Octal HR is configurable for other regions too.
Public holidays in Octal HR affect attendance status (showing as "H" instead of "A" or "P") and payroll proration for employees who join or leave mid-month. It's important to configure holidays before your first payroll run.
Adding a holiday
1
Go to HR > Holidays and click Add Holiday.
2
Enter the Holiday Name (e.g. Pakistan Day), Date, and optionally a description.
3
Tick Recurring if the holiday falls on the same date every year, so it can be rolled forward to future years.
4
Click Save. The holiday is now excluded from attendance working-day counts and payroll proration calculations. You can edit or delete it later from the Holidays list.
Tip: Instead of adding each holiday by hand, use Import Public Holidays on the Holidays page. Octal HR shows a curated preset list of that year's public holidays for your country — just tick the ones you want and import them.
Pakistan national holidays 2026
The following are the gazetted public holidays for 2026 (Federal Government of Pakistan). Exact dates for Islamic holidays depend on moon sighting and are approximate.
| Holiday | Date 2026 |
|---|---|
| Kashmir Solidarity Day | 5 Feb |
| Pakistan Day | 23 Mar |
| Eid ul-Fitr (3 days) | ~30 Mar – 1 Apr |
| Labour Day | 1 May |
| Eid ul-Adha (3 days) | ~6–8 Jun |
| Independence Day | 14 Aug |
| Ashura (2 days) | ~25–26 Jun |
| Eid Milad-un-Nabi | ~5 Sep |
| Allama Iqbal Day | 9 Nov |
| Quaid-e-Azam Day | 25 Dec |
Note: Islamic holiday dates are determined by moon sighting and will be announced officially closer to the date. Update these in Octal HR once the government announcement is made.
Provincial holidays
If your company observes province-specific holidays (for example, Sindh Cultural Day on Dec 5), add each one as its own holiday with its date. Holidays in Octal HR apply company-wide, so only add the days your organisation actually observes.
Impact on attendance and payroll
- Attendance: On a holiday, attendance status for all employees automatically shows as H (Holiday), regardless of whether they clocked in or not.
- Payroll proration: When calculating an employee's pay for a partial month (joining or leaving mid-month), public holidays are excluded from the denominator. Only actual working days are counted.
- Leave calculation: If a leave request falls on a public holiday, the holiday day is not counted as a leave day (depends on your leave policy settings under Settings > Leave Policy).