More than 50 traders’ and market associations in Karachi on Tuesday announced that they would close their markets on September 3 in response to Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Pakistan’s call for a countrywide strike against the petroleum levy.
JI Pakistan Ameer Hafiz Naeemur Rehman thanked Karachi’s business community for supporting the party’s campaign against the petroleum levy and the planned nationwide strike. Addressing a traders’ convention on the 17th day of the JI’s sit-in outside the Governor House, Rehman criticised the government’s economic policies, particularly the petroleum levy, and accused successive governments of burdening ordinary citizens while extending privileges to the ruling elite.
He alleged that the government was pursuing flawed economic policies and questioned its claim that the petroleum levy could not be abolished because of International Monetary Fund (IMF) conditions.
“On the one hand, the government says it cannot abolish the levy because of the IMF, while on the other hand, the same regime was able to purchase lavish aircraft worth Rs11 billion,” he said.
“Did the IMF guidelines evaporate when the PML-N regime was purchasing the aircraft for just one person in the middle of a global crisis?” he asked. The JI chief said abolishing the levy all at once was practical, arguing that the same amount could be generated through austerity measures by the government.
