JI announces countrywide protest against petroleum levy on Sunday

LAHORE: Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) Pakistan Emir Hafiz Naeemur Rehman on Saturday announced that the party would stage sit-ins outside the Governor Houses in Karachi, Quetta and Peshawar and the Chief Minister House in Lahore on Sunday against the levy imposed on petroleum products and other taxes. The sit-ins would begin at 4pm, he said, adding that participants would march from different cities to reach the designated sites. Addressing a packed press conference at Mansoora alongside the party’s central and provincial office-bearers, Rehman said, “We want to convey the voice of suppressed labourers, students and other sections of society to the government peacefully.” He warned that if the government tried to create trouble or interfere with the protest, the campaign for lower petrol prices could turn into a movement to topple the government. The JI emir said the party had organised sit-ins at 510 locations the previous week and that “not a single flowerpot was broken” during the protests. “We will come peacefully and return after securing our right,” he said. The JI chief said that “we are giving the time for the start of the sit-ins but not for their ending”, adding that the party was demanding that the petrol price be fixed at Rs225 after abolishing the levy, while the price of roti be fixed at Rs10 and those of flour, electricity and gas be reduced. He also called for cuts in flour, electricity and gas prices and demanded that vehicles used by federal and provincial bureaucrats, judges, ministers, advisers and others should not have engine capacities exceeding 1,300cc. The JI leader further demanded an end to free electricity, gas, fuel and other “extravagant privileges”, saying the taxes collected from the public should be spent on the people. He alleged that the government was meeting its expenses at the expense of citizens’ hard-earned money, while the rulers were unwilling to give up their privileges. “Rs130 is being collected per litre of petrol as extortion in the name of the levy,” he alleged. Rehman also claimed that federal government expenditure had been estimated at Rs800 billion but had reached Rs1 trillion. He questioned the government’s priorities, alleging that public transport remained unavailable while the Punjab chief minister was travelling in an aircraft worth Rs11bn. “If the masses will not come out now, then at what point will they leave their homes?” he asked. The JI emir said his party had no personal agenda and always raised issues concerning the public. He warned that the party had a “second plan” if the government attempted to stop the protests, saying the sit-ins would then be expanded across the country. JI Deputy Chiefs Liaqat Baloch, Mian Muhammad Aslam and Dr Attaur Rehman, Acting Secretary General Nazeer Ahmed Janjua, Deputy Secretary Azhar Iqbal Hassan, Lahore Emir Ziauddin Ansari, Central Punjab Secretary Babar Rashid, social media head Salman Sheikh, and JI Youth representatives Ahmad Salman Baloch and Jibran Butt were also present at the press conference.