Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) chief Naeemur Rehman on Friday called for sit-ins on Aug. 9 (Sunday) outside the Punjab Chief Minister’s House in Lahore and Governor Houses in Karachi, Peshawar and Quetta to protest fuel prices and electricity tariffs, as a continuation of the party’s demonstrations against inflation.
Addressing a demonstration in Lahore, Rehman urged party workers to launch a door-to-door campaign on Saturday (today) to encourage maximum participation in Sunday’s protest. He said the party had staged protests at around 500 locations nationwide on Friday, asserting that a large number of people had participated in multiple cities.
Dubbing Friday’s protests as the start of a long-term movement, he warned that the sit-ins could be prolonged if the government did not accept the party’s demands for curtailing the petroleum development levy and reducing the price of petrol to Rs. 225/liter. He noted international fuel prices were declining but the government had yet to pass on the benefit to the public, despite quickly raising prices when they spiked.
Rehman maintained the country’s governance system had failed to provide relief to the public and was focused on benefiting influential groups. He slammed the existing political structure, alleging it only empowered feudal elites and urged the incumbent government to acknowledge its shortcomings.
He further alleged that the petroleum development levy had become a source of revenue for the government to compensate for weak tax collection by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR). He advised the government to stop blaming the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for its economic decision, noting it had no trouble maintaining its “extravagant spending.”
The JI chief praised his party’s workers for maintaining discipline during Friday’s demonstrations, adding future protests would also proceed peacefully.
Nationwide protests
The JI’s protests converged on their meeting points around 4 p.m. and lasted several hours before dispersing peacefully. During the demonstrations, traffic disruptions were observed in major cities, including Lahore, Rawalpindi and Karachi.
In Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, the party blocked the Karakoram Highway at five different locations. Apart from the sit-ins, the party staged rallies in several locations, all demanding relief for the public from rampant inflation.