KARACHI: Hundreds of women activists of the Jamaat-i-Islami on Tuesday thronged Aiwan-i-Saddar Road to take part in the sit-in being held by their party to protest high electricity tariff, capacity payments to independent power producers (IPPs) and inflated power bills.

Carrying placards, chanting slogans and wearing armbands, the women from almost all age groups and children participated in the sit-in that continued for more than five hours, keeping vehicular traffic suspended on the busy road in front of the Sindh Governor House for the fourth consecutive day.

The protesters demanded immediate cut in power bills, relief in taxes mainly to salaried class and an effective local government system in Karachi.

Addressing the protesters, JI Karachi chief Monem Zafar lauded the women activists for joining the protest in order to voice their demands.

Protest outside Sindh Governor House enters fourth day

He warned that fast shrinking political space in Pakistan, growing inflation and miserable living condition of a common man should push the state to respond to its demands and deliver fast as otherwise the situation in the country could turn the way it did in Bangladesh.

“Here are mothers and daughters of Karachi who have been demonstrating for their demands because the state has failed to deliver even after the passage of 77 years,” he said. “The Jamaat believes in peaceful political resistance and it is the only way forward. But we want to make it very clear that it should not been as our weakness. Otherwise the situation could turn the way it did in Bangladesh.”

The JI leader said that the party workers would have to double their efforts and contact masses through door to door campaigns in order to gain momentum. The establishment had imposed the Form-47 regime and “qabza mayor” on Karachi but the hearts of Karachiites beat with the JI, he said and added that 40 families had been ruling the country and plundering its resources.

Talking about demands, he said the foremost of them was to abolish unjust contracts with the IPPs operating in Pakistan. Other demands included reduction in inflation, withdrawal of tax slabs on the salaried class and appropriate measures, including provision of electricity on production cost and gradually reducing the interest rate to zero in order to put the economy back on track, he added.

JI Karachi women wing head Javidan Faheem also addressed the participants.

She said that the prevailing hardships in running a household had compelled the women in Karachi to join the protest. She held the consecutive ruling regimes responsible for the prevailing situation and added that the failed governmental policies had made it difficult for the lower middle classes to manage their expenditures even on basic needs.

Published in Dawn, August 7th, 2024