PESHAWAR: The Jamaat-i-Islami has announced to stage sit-ins outside the governor’s houses in all the four provinces against the backbreaking inflation.

Talking to mediaperons at the Peshawar Press Club on Monday, the JI district leaders claimed that 100,000 people would participate in the sit-in to be staged outside the Governor’s House in Peshawar.

“The sit-in outside the Governor’s House will continue for several days,” JI Peshawar district president Bahrullah Advocate told reporters.

He said that the Jamaat would also organise a wheel-jam strike if the increase in the petroleum products’ prices and electricity bills was not withdrawn.

He held the previous Pakistan Democratic Movement government responsible for the current price hike ‘fuelled by the harsh conditions of the International Monetary Fund programme’.

Bahrullah alleged that the PDM leaders had made their sons ministers and committed corruption of billions of rupees.

The JI district president alleged that Pakistan Peoples Party and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz had signed deals with the Independent Power Producers (IPPs) after receiving bribes. He said the JI had started obtaining record of the accords with the IPPs.

“Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl is in charge of the government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, so the Jamaat considers the JUI-F responsible for smuggling of sugar to Afghanistan,” Bahrullah alleged, adding JUI-F had the experience of smuggling different items to Afghanistan in the past.

The JI leader termed registration of the FIRs against the party leaders as baseless. He added that JI activists were being arrested in midnight raids on their houses for holding a successful strike on Saturday.

Published in Dawn, September 5th, 2023