Islamabad: Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan Emir Engineer Hafiz Naeemur Rehman has announced a major protest in Islamabad on Friday, May 15, against massive and unbearable increase in petroleum prices.

Addressing a press conference here on Tuesday, Hafiz Naeemur Rehman said he would personally lead the protest and announce the party’s future course of action on the occasion. The JI chief said that the actual ex-refinery price of petrol should be around Rs270 per liter, while consumers were being charged approximately Rs415 per liter due to heavy levies and taxes. He said the government was using petroleum levies to meet IMF-linked revenue targets at the expense of the public.

The JI chief warned that if the government failed to reduce petroleum prices and abolish the petroleum levy entirely, the party could resort to wheel-jam protests and nationwide shutter-down strikes. He appealed particularly to the youth to participate actively in the Islamabad protest.

The JI chief also criticized the taxation system, saying the government had collected trillions of rupees through taxes imposed on electricity bills over the past three years, while salaried individuals alone paid more than Rs500 billion in taxes last year. Pakistan’s middle class, laborers, and students collectively owned around 25 million motorcycles, he said, adding that even if 10 million motorcyclists consumed one liter of petrol daily, they would effectively be paying between Rs500 billion to Rs600 billion in taxes to the government. He questioned how much tax had been collected from feudal landlords.

Hafiz Naeemur Rehman said that the ruling elite was living lavishly while burdening ordinary citizens with inflation. He said that the rulers were extracting taxes from the public to fulfill revenue targets while continuing extravagant expenditures. Criticizing the government’s economic policies, Hafiz Naeemur Rehman said that poor settlements were being demolished in Islamabad while illegal constructions for the elite, including the ‘One Constitution Avenue’ twin towers project, were being protected. He said such actions were raising serious questions not only about the rulers but also about the country’s justice system.

Targeting the ruling coalition, he termed the leadership of PML-N and PPP incompetent, involved in corruption and protecting the interests of Independent Power Producers (IPPs). He said the government was paying nearly Rs2 trillion annually to IPPs even for electricity not produced, while simultaneously charging citizens high electricity prices. He further criticized the increase in LNG and LPG prices and questioned why cheaper gas was not being imported from Iran despite existing agreements.

Hafiz Naeemur Rehman said Jamaat-e-Islami’s previous protests had compelled the government to renegotiate agreements with several IPPs on softer terms, but progress on remaining agreements had stalled.

Calling on citizens to unite, Hafiz Naeemur Rehman said Jamaat-e-Islami believed in peaceful resistance and would continue raising its voice against economic oppression and injustice. He said that after the completion of JI membership drive targets, the party would launch a countrywide protest movement against inflation, excessive taxation, and economic injustice.