Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Pakistan has announced the third phase of its long march towards Islamabad, which will begin on October 23. The party says the march is meant to pressure the government into abolishing the petroleum levy and easing the burden on the public. The announcement was made in Lahore on Wednesday.
JI Deputy Emir Liaquat Baloch said protest demonstrations would also be held on October 23 at every district headquarters across the country. He called the nationwide protest call by JI Emir Hafiz Naeemur Rehman well-timed, and said the party would keep fighting for the levy to be withdrawn.
Talks with government stalled over petroleum levy
Baloch said the government had proposed that the negotiating committees of both sides meet before any meeting between Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Hafiz Naeemur Rehman. He urged both committees to finalise their recommendations as soon as possible. He added that JI had received no word of any progress from the government’s negotiating team.
Baloch maintained that the party would not give ground on its principled and constitutional position on public issues.
Earlier march postponed after prime minister’s call
Hafiz Naeemur Rehman had first announced a long march towards Islamabad on September 20 to protest the petroleum levy. The party later postponed it after a telephone call from Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
Speaking at a press conference in Multan, Hafiz Naeem said the postponement was temporary and made at the prime minister’s request. He said the premier had promised to meet the JI leadership after returning home to look for a solution, but that meeting has yet to take place.
Party defends its levy campaign and strategy
Addressing party workers in Lahore, Hafiz Naeem said JI had not changed its existing strategy. He claimed that no other political party had spoken up on the levy when JI began raising it, and that most people had been largely unaware of it only a few months earlier.
Hafiz Naeem maintained that the levy has no connection to the actual price of petrol and described it as “jaga tax”. He said the party had already blocked roads, held sit-ins, organised rallies and strikes, and launched a long march, and had not abandoned its protest movement.
