Jamaat-i-Islami chief threatens street protests unless government scraps petroleum levy

KARACHI: Jamaat-i-Islami chief Hafiz Naeem ur Rehman has said that the party will return to the streets if the government does not act on the levy.

Addressing a press conference at Idara Noor-e-Haq, he said that three years ago, the Al-Aqsa Flood and the resistance shown by the Palestinians had prompted Israel to take its revenge on ordinary people, levelling the whole of Gaza. “The Palestinians taught the world what resistance means,” he said.

On petrol prices, he said the levy should be abolished. He called on Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar to end it. About Rs150 billion is being collected every month under the levy, he said. “What mechanism do you have?” he asked. He said Dar had told him the government would provide figures within a day or two.

Hafiz Naeem said Dar had argued that if the levy were removed, owners of large cars would also get cheaper petrol. Jamaat-i-Islami’s response, he said, was that they should instead pay 200 rupees in levy per litre rather than 100. “Those who can afford expensive cars can also pay the levy, but relief should be given to the middle class and the poor,” he said.

He said the party’s struggle over the petroleum levy was continuing. He had met Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who had asked for time to provide further relief. “We have one demand: the petroleum levy must be abolished,” he said.

He also said that the federal and provincial governments in Pakistan were all products of Form 47. “These people have destroyed Karachi, and corruption has ruined the whole of Sindh,” he said.

He said the world needed a new global order in which Muslims and resistance movements would have to unite. He said he had recently visited Turkiye, where sectarian and sect-based talk was absent and Islam was discussed as a whole, which showed him that Islam was not merely a religion but a system.