Desk research against primary sources. Figures are traced to the issuing UAE authority and linked on the page.
The free-parking headline for major malls like Dubai Mall, Mall of Emirates, Ibn Battuta and Mirdif City Centre only covers the mall’s own car park — it says nothing about the street outside it, which is a separate system with its own hours and its own exceptions. Assuming the whole area is free because the mall is can catch out anyone who parks on the street nearby rather than inside the mall’s structure.
The Sunday exception is specific to on-street bays running 08:00–22:00, not to parking generally — a multi-storey car park charges 24/7 including Sunday, so choosing the street over the structure to save money on the one day it is genuinely free only works if you are actually parking on the street. Friday being a normal paid day is the other half of the same confusion, since treating it like a weekend exception the way Sunday is treated leads to an unpaid ticket.