JI Emir Vows to Escalate Protest Until Petroleum Levy Is Scrapped

JI Emir Vows to Escalate Protest Until Petroleum Levy Is Scrapped

LAHORE: August 20: Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan Emir Hafiz Naeem ur Rehman on Thursday announced a phased escalation of JI’s campaign against the petroleum levy, declaring that a nationwide wheel-jam and shutter-down strike was on cards if the government failed to withdraw the levy and reduce fuel prices.
Addressing participants of the JI sit-in outside the Punjab Chief Minister’s House, Hafiz Naeem ur Rehman said the JI would hold public gatherings and establish protest camps across the country before moving towards a long march on Islamabad. He warned that the march would not be a symbolic exercise and said the party’s leadership had begun preparations for a sustained mobilisation.
“Our struggle is peaceful and organised, but we have not come here to leave,” he said, adding that JI would remain on the streets until petroleum prices were reduced and the levy abolished.
He thanked the lawyers’ community for joining the Lahore sit-in and said traders, religious scholars, students, farmers, workers and women were also participating. The JI chief said sit-ins were simultaneously continuing in Lahore, Karachi and Peshawar, with the protests attracting a large crowd.
He announced that he would travel to Karachi on Friday, where the sit-in would be turned into a public gathering. A women’s public meeting would also be held at the Lahore protest venue on Saturday.
Rehman said the protests had entered their fifth day but the party was prepared for a prolonged campaign. He rejected the government’s expectation that protesters would eventually tire, saying JI had begun organising the movement at the grassroots level.
He said the government was deliberately keeping the petroleum levy despite falling or fluctuating international oil prices. “We understand that oil is expensive in the international market and prices should reflect that, but explain why you are imposing the levy,” he said.
The JI emir also criticised the government’s taxation policies, saying students were being forced to work to pay their fees while people outside the formal tax base were also being burdened with taxes. He said that large landowners and influential groups escaped taxation while ordinary citizens carried the cost.
Turning to the power sector, Rehman said that consumers had been overcharged through controversial capacity-payment arrangements with independent power producers (IPPs). He said the government needed to rein in the “IPPs mafia” and ensure that the public was not charged for electricity that was never generated.
He said the Federal Board of Revenue and bureaucracy were mistreating ordinary citizens while failing to address corruption. He said that people’s businesses, homes and personal security were increasingly vulnerable, and expressed concern over rising extrajudicial killings.
The JI leader said the government’s recent reduction in diesel prices by Rs32 had raised questions about why consumers had previously been charged more. “You announced that you would talk to the refineries, and then you talked to them. Why were the people being charged extra?” he asked.
He said JI would now move beyond the sit-ins by setting up support camps in every district and locality. The party, he added, would organise public gatherings in Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan and seek to take the movement to the grassroots.
The JI emir said Rabi-ul-Awwal 12 would be marked at the sit-ins, followed by announcement of nationwide wheel-jam and shutter-down strike on the following day. He said the campaign would proceed in stages and ultimately culminate in a long march to Islamabad if the government failed to meet the demands.
“We will keep increasing the size of the procession and bringing more people into the movement,” he said, adding that upon entering Islamabad, party leaders would switch off their mobile phones and would not engage in negotiations with the government there.
Calling on workers of all political parties to join the campaign, Rehman said political workers were a valuable national asset and the JI believed in peaceful political struggle. He warned, however, that responsibility for maintaining peace and managing public anger would rest with the government.
He also criticised the Punjab government over education and healthcare. Hafiz Naeem ur Rehman said that 12 million children in Punjab were out of school and added the provincial government was outsourcing 11,000 schools instead of improving the public education system.
He said the existing feudal, bureaucratic and political system had failed to deliver basic services. “The rich can buy education while the poor child is forced to become a labourer,” he said, arguing that JI wanted a uniform standard of education for all citizens.
He further criticised the Punjab government’s healthcare initiatives, saying basic health units had merely been renamed after Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz rather than substantially improving healthcare delivery.
Rehman demanded that large landowners be brought into the tax net instead of repeatedly increasing the burden on salaried employees, who he said were already paying around Rs700 billion in taxes.
He said JI’s campaign was not merely electoral or political but part of its broader struggle against what it described as an unjust system. “We consider elections an act of worship, and we consider our peaceful protest an act of worship as well,” he said.
The JI emir also expressed solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, saying the party had not forgotten the people of the besieged territory. He paid tribute to Palestinians for their resistance and condemned Israel’s military actions, saying the suffering of civilians should not be ignored.
He questioned the value of Pakistan’s nuclear capability if the sanctity of Al-Aqsa Mosque could be violated and called on Muslim societies to develop the spirit of resistance against oppression.