Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) chief Hafiz Naeemur Rehman has called on the government to reduce fuel prices, abolish the petroleum levy and cut state expenditures, otherwise JI would continue its protest march till the acceptance of their public demands, reported 24NesHD TV Channel.
Talking to media at JI Mansoora office in Lahore, Hafiz Naeem said middle-class families were hit hard with rising electricity, gas and petrol bills. “When petrol prices rise, the prices of everything else go up,” he said, arguing that the impact of fuel price increases was being felt across the economy.
Hafiz Naeem said JI was awaiting Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s return to Pakistan to resume discussions on consumer relief. “If the issue is not addressed in our meeting with the prime minister, we will have no choice but to continue our march,” he said, adding that the party’s protests would continue regardless.
The party had deferred its march earlier this week following talks with PM Shehbaz. He announced that JI would launch a nationwide signature campaign seeking public support for its demands, aiming to collect signatures from 20 million people and present them to the authorities. He said the scale of public backing would also carry weight internationally.
JI chief said the campaign will call for the abolition of the petroleum levy, lower petrol prices, a review of agreements with independent power producers (IPPs) to identify savings, cheaper flour and reductions in government spending.
He said the party had not stepped back from its campaign despite what he described as fluctuations and criticism of the movement, pointing to JI’s rally in Lahore as evidence. He said further public gatherings were planned in Buner, Charsadda, Sialkot, Sahiwal, Sargodha, Vehari, Bahawalpur, Larkana, Mirpurkhas and Karachi, with party workers in Karak, Abbottabad and Mansehra also calling for rallies. “We have not backed down from our demands for even a single day,” he said.
Hafiz Naeem said reducing petrol prices would not be possible without addressing the petroleum levy, which he described as a major component of the burden on consumers. He said consumers were effectively paying Rs135 in taxes and levies on every litre of petrol, including Rs80 in petroleum levy and Rs5 in climate support levy, with the government holding broad authority over the charges.
He rejected the government’s argument that its options were constrained by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme, saying JI had examined the relevant IMF documents and found no specific requirement to collect the petroleum levy at a particular level. He said the IMF’s actual demand was for Pakistan to meet its overall fiscal targets, and that alternative measures such as reducing development spending and government expenditure had also been cited. “Why does the government not talk about those measures?” he asked.
He called for greater transparency in ongoing negotiations with IMF representatives currently in Pakistan, saying the public should be told what commitments were being discussed and whether any could affect the country’s economic independence and sovereignty. He separately called for a cut in the policy interest rate, saying this could ease pressure on both consumers and businesses.
Hafiz Naeem criticised what he described as excessive government spending at a time when ordinary citizens were struggling with rising costs. He cited the reported purchase of an aircraft costing Rs11 billion, saying such spending reflected a mindset in which the government continued to place the financial burden on the public while refusing to reduce its own expenses.
He called for senior officials, including bureaucrats, commissioners, assistant commissioners and federal secretaries, to use smaller 1,300cc official vehicles rather than larger cars. He also questioned the continued allocation of development funds through parliamentarians, arguing that politically motivated spending should be reduced while funding for major, necessary development projects should be protected. He further called for the federal government to eliminate departments whose functions had already been devolved to the provinces under the 18th Amendment.
Hafiz Naeem questioned the scope of the government’s fuel relief package, saying the prime minister had told him around 1.8 million people had registered for the programme, a figure he suggested could have since risen to about 2.5 million. He argued the package covered only a limited section of vehicle owners, since eligibility was restricted largely to motorcycles and vehicles with engines of up to 800cc, while Pakistan had tens of millions of motorcycles and millions of other vehicles on the road.
“Relief packages are limited measures. The policy itself should be right, and fundamentally the price should be reduced,” he said. He rejected the argument that abolishing the petroleum levy would benefit owners of expensive vehicles as much as poorer consumers, proposing instead a differentiated pricing system under which owners of vehicles above 2,000cc would pay a higher price for petrol. Such a system, he argued, could encourage the use of smaller vehicles, reduce fuel consumption and lower the import bill while generating additional revenue for the government.
Hafiz Naeem also criticised Pakistan’s opposition parties, questioning why they had not mounted significant protests when the petroleum levy was incorporated into the federal budget. He said political parties that received millions of votes should speak up on issues affecting ordinary citizens rather than focusing primarily on their own leadership and political disputes.
He alleged that both government and opposition parties were constrained by their financial backers and influential business interests, arguing that parties were reluctant to challenge powerful interests linked to the petroleum, flour, sugar, land and banking sectors because of their ties to party financing and political patronage. He said this dynamic had left Pakistani politics dominated by landlords, wealthy business figures and political families, and criticised what he called an overreliance on political rhetoric, personality-based politics and political cults, saying issues such as employment, education and the concerns of young people were not receiving sufficient attention in the country’s political discourse.