JI chief sticks to wheel-jam, shutter-down strike against petroleum levy, inflation

KARACHI: Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) chief Hafiz Naeemur Rehman has announced that his party will go ahead with the planned nationwide wheel-jam and shutter-down strike on September 3 against inflation and the petroleum levy.

He warned that the party would expand its sit-ins if the government failed to withdraw the petroleum levy.

Addressing a press conference in Karachi, he said that the JI’s protest movement had spread to neighbourhoods and that major traders’ bodies have extended their full support to the strike.

“God willing, there will be a strike across the country tomorrow, and tomorrow evening I will announce the future course of action,” Rehman said, adding that the party had all options available, including calls for protests and sit-ins in Islamabad and Rawalpindi.

He said that the protests could be expanded further if the government did not accept the party’s demands.

Rehman accused the government of placing an excessive burden on the public while providing facilities and privileges to the ruling elite.

He said that consumers were being made to pay Rs1.7 trillion for electricity they had not consumed and questioned the continued burden of taxes and charges on ordinary households.

The JI leader also criticised the government over petroleum prices, saying the public was being made to bear the impact of what he described as an alleged nexus between the government, refineries and oil companies.

He said that petroleum prices were being increased despite the availability of fuel storage and rejected any increase in petroleum product prices on a daily basis.

Rehman also criticised the government’s decision to allow sugar exports after domestic prices had risen, saying the move had contributed to a further increase in prices.

“The people are continuously being crushed under the burden of inflation,” he said.

He questioned how low-income families could afford to feed their children if the price of bread rose from Rs20 to Rs25, and said that if the government claimed to be providing relief to the public, it should also reduce taxes.

Rehman described the JI campaign as a movement of ordinary citizens, young people, low-income families and the middle class, saying people from different sections of society were supporting the protests.

He called on lawyers and members of other professions and sections of society to play an effective role in the movement.

The JI chief also criticised the use of expensive official vehicles and fuel by government officials and ministers, as well as the cost of official protocols, saying the public ultimately bore the burden of such expenditures.

Rehman invited all opposition parties to join the protest movement and urged the Pakistan People’s Party and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement not to engage in what he described as “noora kushti” by creating divisions between Sindhis and Muhajirs.

He reiterated that the party’s options included a call for Islamabad, sit-ins in Islamabad and Rawalpindi and an expansion of the ongoing protests. He said the JI would announce its next course of action on Thursday evening.

The JI has been staging a sit-in outside the Karachi Governor House for 17 days against petroleum levy and what it calls “extortion taxes”, agreements with independent power producers and inflation. JI workers are also holding a sit-in in Lahore.

The party has been pressing the government to withdraw the petroleum levy and provide relief to consumers facing high electricity and fuel costs.

The September 3 strike is the latest escalation in the JI’s campaign, with Rehman warning that the protests could widen if the government does not address the party’s demands.