LAHORE: Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Pakistan Emir Hafiz Naeemur Rehman has announced a nationwide protest against the petroleum levy on Friday, Aug. 7, saying it will be a decisive show of public strength against what he described as an unjust financial burden on the people.
According to a statement issued from the party’s headquarters at Mansoora, Hafiz Naeemur Rehman said millions of citizens were expected to participate in the protest. He said demonstrators would stage sit-ins on major highways and block roads connecting districts in an effort to compel the government to provide relief to the public.
He said preparations for the protest movement had entered the final stage, with Jamaat-e-Islami leaders and workers across the country actively engaging different segments of society through public outreach, corner meetings and awareness campaigns to ensure the success of what he described as a historic protest.
Hafiz Naeemur Rehman said the protest was not being held for any political interest but to defend the rights of every Pakistani struggling under inflation, unemployment and what he called the unbearable burden of taxes.
He also announced that he would address a women’s protest against the petroleum levy on Aug. 6 at Wahdat Road in Lahore, organized by Jamaat-e-Islami’s women’s wing. He said women would also raise their voices against what he termed anti-public economic policies.
The JI chief made a special appeal to young people to come out on their motorcycles on Aug. 7, bring them onto the roads and peacefully block highways to make the protest successful. He emphasized that the protest would remain entirely peaceful and that only ambulances and emergency service vehicles would be allowed to pass.
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Hafiz Naeemur Rehman warned the government against creating obstacles to what he described as the public’s constitutional and democratic right to protest. He said that if the authorities attempted to suppress the public’s voice, the government would bear full responsibility for the consequences.
He demanded the immediate abolition of the petroleum levy, a review of expensive agreements with independent power producers (IPPs), an end to electricity load-shedding, and immediate and effective measures to control inflation.
Hafiz Naeemur Rehman said Jamaat-e-Islami’s peaceful public movement would continue until what he described as oppressive economic policies imposed on the people were withdrawn.
