Lahore: Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan Emir Engineer Hafiz Naeemur Rehman has delivered a blunt message to the government: the JI will not leave the streets until its demands, including the abolition of the petroleum levy, are accepted.Addressing a press conference at the JI sit-in outside the Punjab Chief Minister's House on Monday, Hafiz Naeemur Rehman said the protests in Lahore, Karachi and Peshawar represented the grievances of Pakistan's 250 million people.JI Vice Emir Dr. Osama Razi, Acting Secretary General Nazir Ahmed Janjua, Deputy Secretary Russ Khan Babar, Lahore Emir Ziauddin Ansari Advocate, Punjab Central Emir Javed Kasuri, Secretary Babar Rashid and Information Secretary Shakil Ahmed Turabi were also present at the press conference. 'Rulers have become slaves to the IMF, ' Hafiz Naeemur Rehman said, adding the government was passing the burden of its economic failures on to ordinary citizens. He also criticised the bureaucracy, saying officials must stop treating themselves as rulers and the pub lic as subjects.The JI sit-in against the petroleum levy, high electricity tariffs and costly agreements with independent power producers (IPPs) entered its second day on Monday. Despite scorching heat, thousands of protesters remained at Lahore's Charing Cross after spending the night on Mall Road. They continued chanting slogans against the government, with national and party flags flying over the protest site. Similar sit-ins continued outside the Governor Houses in Karachi and Peshawar. The protesters are demanding a reduction in petrol prices to Rs225 per litre, withdrawal of the petroleum levy and cheaper electricity.Hafiz Naeemur Rehman said the movement was not limited to JI workers but represented doctors, lawyers, traders, farmers and other sections of society. He urged people to come out in large numbers and join the protests. He said the government was hitting people with a petrol bomb while simultaneously increasing electricity costs. He rejected the repeated use of international developments and IMF conditions to justify higher fuel prices.On IPP agreements, he said the policy began during Benazir Bhutto's government and was subsequently expanded by the PML-N and PPP. He said that the capacity of some power plants had been overstated, while irregularities also occurred in biomass-based plants. He said consumers were being forced to pay billions in capacity payments even when electricity production costs were lower. Even households using up to 200 units were struggling with electricity bills, he added.Turning to the petroleum levy, the JI chief said the government had already collected more than Rs8 trillion from consumers. He questioned why domestic refineries had not been upgraded despite the huge revenue collection and said Pakistan still lacked an effective fuel storage system. According to him, the ex-refinery price of petrol was around Rs195 per litre, while consumers were paying roughly another Rs130 per litre through taxes and levies.The JI leader also criticised the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), saying annual corruption in the FBR was exceeding around Rs1. 3 trillion. He contrasted the Rs12 billion tax paid collectively by landlords and feudal elites with around Rs700 billion collected annually from salaried workers. He said Pakistan had been dominated by the same elite structure for 79 years and that even the rulers were now admitting the system had failed.Responding to the government's offer of negotiations, Hafiz Naeemur Rehman said JI would not travel to Islamabad to meet a government committee. 'Those who want to talk should come here, ' he said, promising that the party would receive them with respect.He said JI was exercising its constitutional right to peaceful protest and had also approached the courts against the petroleum levy, but regretted that the case had not progressed.Hafiz Naeemur Rehman reiterated that the sit-ins would continue until the demands were accepted. 'The people will no longer accept this 'jagga' or extortion-style tax in the name of petroleum levy, ' he said.