Jamaat-e-Islami Emir Hafiz Naeem ur Rehman has announced that his party will not leave the streets until its demands are accepted.
As the JI sit-ins at The Mall Lahore and in front of Governor Houses of Karachi and Peshawar continued on the second day of Monday, the government has so far not responded to the protestors demands.
The religio-political party is holding protest against petroleum levy and IPPs agreements.
Rehman had earlier called for holding sit-in protest in capitals of all provinces but it could not succeed to gather protestors in Quetta due to security reasons. Many believe around 6,000 protestors are sitting in three major cities.
Addressing a press conference at The Mall, Hafiz Naeem ur Rehman claimed the protests in Lahore, Karachi and Peshawar represented the grievances of 250 million people of Pakistan.
He demanded a reduction in petrol prices to Rs225 per litre and complete withdrawal of the petroleum levy. The JI leader urged people to come out in large numbers and join the protests.
Petrol Bomb:
He accused the government of hitting people with a “petrol bomb.” He rejected the repeated use of international developments and IMF conditions by the government to justify higher fuel prices.
The JI chief claimed the government had already collected more than Rs8 trillion from consumers. He questioned why domestic refineries had not been upgraded despite the huge revenue collection. Pakistan, he believed, still lacked an effective fuel storage system.
According to him, the ex-refinery price of petrol was around Rs195 per litre. “Consumers are paying roughly another Rs130 per litre through taxes and levies.”
Responding to government’s offer of negotiations, Rehman said said JI would not travel to Islamabad to meet a government committee. “Those who want to talk should come to us,” he said, adding the JI would receive them with respect.
The JI, he said, was exercising its constitutional right to peaceful protest. He said the JI had also approached the courts against the petroleum levy, but regretted that the case had not progressed.
