Jamaat-e-Islami Holds Sit-Ins in Provincial Capitals Against Rising Fuel Prices and Petroleum Levy
LAHORE (Qudrat Daily): Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan has launched protest sit-ins in three major provincial capitals—Karachi, Lahore and Peshawar—against repeated increases in petroleum product prices and the petroleum levy.
Addressing participants of the sit-in on Lahore’s Mall Road, Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan chief Hafiz Naeemur Rehman said the protest had begun and would continue until the government bowed to public demands.
He said the sit-in would not be called off until the government took steps to provide relief to the people and addressed their concerns over rising fuel prices.
In Karachi, the Jamaat-e-Islami’s central protest rally began from Khizra Mosque and proceeded along Karachi Press Club Road towards the Governor House. A large number of party workers and citizens participated in the rally.
The administration placed containers and other barriers on major roads leading towards the Governor House as part of security arrangements and to restrict the protesters’ movement. Due to the barricades, protesters led by Jamaat-e-Islami Karachi chief Munim Zafar gathered at Fountain Chowk near the Governor House and launched a sit-in there.
In Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Jamaat-e-Islami also began a protest sit-in against the petroleum levy.
Addressing the protesters, Jamaat-e-Islami Central Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief Abdul Waseh said the petroleum levy was an unjust system that had placed an enormous burden on ordinary citizens, farmers and labourers.
He claimed that the federal government had collected Rs1,205 billion from the public through the petroleum levy during the last fiscal year, describing the amount as a grave injustice.
In Lahore, Jamaat-e-Islami established a formal protest camp at Charing Cross. Party workers marched from Masjid-e-Shuhada to Charing Cross while chanting slogans, where a large gathering of protesters had assembled.
A heavy police contingent was deployed at Charing Cross and surrounding roads in view of the protest.
The Jamaat-e-Islami leadership has demanded that the government immediately control the rising prices of petroleum products and either abolish the petroleum levy or significantly reduce it.
