- JI vows nationwide shutdown if protests face crackdown.
- Sit-ins enter their ninth consecutive day.
- Party announces rallies in Faisalabad, Rawalpindi.
LAHORE: Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) chief Hafiz Naeemur Rehman on Monday said the government was giving oil companies undue margins on petrol prices as protests against the petroleum levy continued.
Addressing participants of the sit-in at Faisal Chowk on Lahore’s Mall Road, Naeem said if the government wants to hold negotiations with his party, it should hold them over the abolition of the petroleum levy.
“The government is giving companies an undue margin on petrol prices,” Naeem said, adding that people were already facing difficulties while bureaucrats’ privileges were being increased.
The JI’s sit-ins in Lahore, Peshawar, and Karachi have entered their ninth day, with Naeem saying participation in the party’s protests was increasing, including among women.
“Our issue is not about ego; we want to provide relief to the people,” he said.
Naeem announced that the party would call for a nationwide shutter-down strike on 13 Rabi-ul-Awwal and said a countrywide strike would be held in the first week of September.
He warned that the government would face nationwide protests if it attempted to remove or interfere with the sit-ins.
“Peaceful sit-ins and protests are our democratic right,” Naeem said. “If the government tries to interfere, we will shut down the entire country.”
He also criticised the government’s spending, saying rulers should stop lavish expenditure and the use of large official vehicles.
Naeem alleged that rulers were collecting the petroleum levy even from people who were not liable to pay taxes, describing the practice as unacceptable.
He also said the government had allowed wheat exports, which he claimed had contributed to an increase in wheat prices.
The JI chief said the party would hold a rally in Faisalabad on August 28 and another in Rawalpindi on August 30.
He said the party would not come to power through “Form 47 or the back door”, but would seek to change the system with public support.
