Key Takeaways
- Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Ameer Hafiz Naeem-ur-Rehman announced that his party will not give up its right to march until the Petroleum Levy is abolished.
- The party has been staging sit-ins and protests against the petroleum levy since August.
- JI demands the government abolish the PL and reduce interest rates to combat inflation.
JI Ameer Hafiz Naeem-ur-Rehman has stated that his party will not cease its protest campaign until the Petroleum Levy (PL) is abolished, according to a press conference held in Islamabad on Wednesday.
Naeem-ur-Rehman said that the long march had been paused for a few days at Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s request, but JI would continue its protests during the pause and hold public meetings, including in Lahore and other cities.
The JI chief highlighted that the poor people are paying around Rs140 per litre in the form of different taxes on each litre of petrol, and called for the PL to be abolished.
He warned that if the government fails to provide relief to inflation-hit masses, the protest campaign will be expanded.
Naeem-ur-Rehman also criticized the government for borrowing heavily from private banks and paying billions of rupees in interest, linking the issue to an unfair economic system.
The JI emir said that when the interest rate was 22.5 percent, the rate of inflation was around 37 percent, and when it was reduced to 10 percent, the inflation rate came down to around 7 percent.
He called for the government to reduce the interest rate by three percentage points, which could save the national exchequer more than Rs1.5 trillion.
JI has been staging sit-ins and protests against the petroleum levy since August, launching road blockades at 510 locations before starting sit-ins at 42 locations across the country on August 16.
The campaign later expanded into a train march towards Islamabad, which was subsequently paused following a telephone conversation between Hafiz Naeem and the prime minister.
Naeem-ur-Rehman said that JI’s next course of action would depend on the outcome of a meeting with the prime minister after his return to Pakistan.
The poor people are paying around Rs140 per litre in the form of different taxes on each litre of petrol.
Hafiz Naeem-ur-Rehman, JI Ameer
The better option is to abolish the petroleum levy. Otherwise, people will take to the streets to seek the removal of the government.
Hafiz Naeem-ur-Rehman, JI Ameer
