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Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Karachi Ameer Monem Zafar on Saturday said that the shutter-down strike observed on September 3 had proved that the people had rejected the petroleum levy.
Speaking to the media, the JI Karachi chief said Pakistanis were being forced to purchase petrol at an all-time high price under the governments of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).
He said the sit-ins against the petroleum levy had become the voice of 250 million people across the country, as the party’s protest outside the Governor House entered its 21st day.
“Rs85 is being collected from the people on every litre of petrol. Rs1,337 billion has been collected during the tenure of Shehbaz Sharif,” he said. “The price of diesel has increased by Rs233 and petrol by Rs178 during his tenure.”
Zafar said the government had “snatched the right to live” from the people. “The trading community and industrialists are all worried. If the wheel of industry does not turn and business does not take place, people become unemployed. People are being forced to commit suicide because they do not have money to provide bread for their children,” he said.
Zafar commended citizens for making the strike successful and said the rulers had “crushed the people under inflation.”
The JI Karachi chief also criticised the PPP and Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), accusing them of promoting an ethnic divide.
