JI announces Islamabad long march in mid-November
Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) has announced it will march towards Islamabad in mid-November if the government fails to abolish the petroleum levy, with party chief Hafiz Naeemur Rehman warning that the protest will no longer be postponed.
Speaking at a news conference in Islamabad on Tuesday after meeting Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Rehman said the government had sought another seven to 10 days to address the party’s demand.
“We want to make it clear that we will not postpone our Islamabad march any longer. It will now take place in mid-November, and it certainly will take place,” the JI chief said.
He added that the party had already waited for two months and was willing to give the government a few more days, but would proceed with the march if its demand remained unmet.
“Let them announce this package, provide this relief, and devise a mechanism to abolish this extortionate levy before that. If they do not do so, we might have to sit on the road to talk,” Rehman said.
“We are prepared for anything,” he added.
A JI delegation led by Rehman met the prime minister on Tuesday to discuss the party’s demands. The delegation included JI Vice Emir Liaquat Baloch, Deputy Secretary General Syed Farasat Shah and Islamabad chapter chief Nasrullah Randhawa.
Following the meeting, Rehman said the government had maintained that it was expanding measures to provide relief to the public. However, he argued that the existing relief package was not delivering meaningful benefits to ordinary citizens.
He reiterated that the abolition of the petroleum levy remained the party’s primary demand and called on the government to formulate a clear mechanism to eliminate it before the planned march.
Rehman also criticised the impact of rising oil prices on the public, claiming that higher prices had increased refinery profit margins. He said successive governments had pledged to break away from reliance on the International Monetary Fund (IMF) after coming to power but had failed to do so.
Governments should not shift the burden of their failures onto the public, he said.
Background to the protest
JI has been campaigning against the petroleum levy for months. On August 16, the party announced sit-ins in all provincial capitals and called a nationwide strike for September 3.
In early September, the party and the federal government agreed to form committees to propose measures for reducing the levy.
JI subsequently began a protest march towards Islamabad on September 20 but postponed it on September 22, citing the prime minister’s assurance that he would meet the party leadership to discuss its demands.
Last week, the party accused the government of failing to contact it regarding the proposed meeting.
Following Tuesday’s meeting, Rehman said JI would wait another seven to 10 days for a concrete response. He made clear, however, that the party was determined to proceed with its Islamabad long march in mid-November if the government failed to meet its demand for abolishing the petroleum levy.