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ISLAMABAD: Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Ameer Hafiz Naeemur Rehman on Saturday warned the government that the party would turn its ongoing protest movement into a campaign to oust the government if the petroleum levy was not abolished.
Addressing a women’s rally at Aabpara Chowk in the federal capital, he rejected the petroleum levy as an unfair tax imposed on the people and demanded its immediate withdrawal. He also reiterated the call for a nationwide march on Islamabad on September 20.
Acting Secretary General of the JI Women Wing Samina Saeed, Islamabad Women Wing chief Qudsia Namoos, JI Islamabad Ameer Nasrullah Randhawa and Secretary Zubair Safdar also addressed the rally. JI Information Secretary Shakil Ahmed Turabi and other male and female leaders were also present.
Rehman said persistent inflation and rising petrol and electricity prices had made life increasingly difficult, with even middle-class families struggling to meet expenses and poor households finding it hard to afford two meals a day. He demanded lower petrol prices and immediate abolition of the petroleum levy, saying women were among those worst hit by inflation and forced to choose between school fees, utility bills and groceries. Many men, he added, had been forced to work two jobs, while millions of daily-wage workers lacked basic employment rights.
The JI leader said more than Rs130 of the Rs386 per litre petrol price comprised taxes, questioning why the government was burdening citizens instead of cutting spending on official vehicles and other privileges. He said petrol prices were raised when international oil prices increased but consumers received no comparable relief when they fell. Rehman criticised the government for citing the International Monetary Fund to justify the levy. “Do the rulers seek the IMF’s permission before using their aircraft, expensive vehicles and other luxuries?” he asked. He said the government should instead tax landlords and the wealthy if required under the IMF programme.
He said the JI’s nationwide sit-in campaign would continue, with protests being held at 35 to 40 locations across the country. He said a historic march on Islamabad would be held on September 20, with people from across Pakistan expected to participate. He said the government had started placing containers to restrict the march but maintained that the JI would remain peaceful and exercise its democratic right to enter Islamabad from different directions.
