Shehbaz Must Announce Levy Relief at Meeting With JI Emir: Liaqat Baloch
Liaquat Baloch speaks to media after meeting the government’s negotiation committee in Islamabad.
Vice Emir Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan Liaqat Baloch has urged Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to announce relief for the public in the proposed meeting with JI Emir Hafiz Naeem ur Rehman, stressing that the meeting should take place within a week and must not be reduced to a photo opportunity.
He made the demand while speaking to journalists after talks between JI and the government’s negotiating committees on the petroleum levy. He said the government must stop injustice to the public in the name of the levy.
“We will continue negotiations, but we will not abandon the path of protest,” he said, adding that both sides had formed a technical committee to examine the issues.
Earlier, the two committees held talks at Punjab House to discuss the petroleum levy and possible relief for consumers.
The JI delegation, led by Liaqat Baloch, included Deputy Secretar Syed Farasat Shah, Islamabad Emir Nasrullah Randhawa, Lahore Emir Ziauddin Ansari and North KP Emir Inayatullah Khan.
The government team comprised Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal, Petroleum Minister Ali Pervaiz Malik, Prime Minister’s Adviser on Political Affairs Rana Sanaullah Khan and Minister of State for Finance Bilal Azhar Kiani.
The technical committee comprised Bilal Azhar Kiani, Nasrullah Randhawa and Syed Farasat Shah. The committee would meet within two to three days to examine the outstanding issues.
Baloch said JI’s campaign for public relief had included sit-ins, protests and a train march from Karachi to Multan. The prime minister contacted the party when the train march reached Multan and requested that its planned long march be postponed, he added.
He said JI had agreed to engage with the government committee so that the two sides could make progress on the issue before the proposed meeting between Shehbaz Sharif and Hafiz Naeem ur Rehman.
According to Baloch, the actual price of petrol stood at Rs242.66 per litre and diesel at Rs246.80 per litre, while the government was collecting an additional Rs162 per litre on petrol and Rs148 on diesel in taxes. He said the government had collected Rs1,568 billion through the petroleum levy.
He argued that taxes beyond essential government revenue requirements were placing an excessive burden on consumers. While welcoming relief extended to motorcyclists and rickshaw users, he called for similar concessions for owners of other vehicles.
The JI leader also criticised the government over its financial policies, saying banks earned interest on funds lent to the government while ordinary account holders received no comparable returns on their current-account deposits.
He said the government was delaying decisions on IPPs and refusing to curb its own expenditure. He further said that the government was exploiting the petroleum levy to extract money from the public while misleading the IMF.