ISLAMABAD: Ahead of the budget announcement, Jamaat-i-Islami Pakistan has called for providing relief to salaried class, reduction in electricity, gas and fuel prices, as well as termination of costly Independent Power Producer (IPP) and re-gasification agreements.

The demands were announced at a seminar titled ‘Budget, Economy and Energy: From Crisis to Solution’ on Wednesday. Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan Emir Hafiz Naeemur Rehman, along with his economic team announced the demands at the seminar.

The JI emir urged the federal government to provide immediate relief to the middle class and fix utility prices for the next several years. He demanded the abolition of income tax on monthly salaries up to Rs125,000 and a 50pc reduction in tax rates for higher-income salaried groups.

He also urged the government to reduce electricity and gas tariffs and bring petrol prices down to Rs230 per litre.

Criticising Pakistan’s tax structure, Hafiz Naeemur Rehman termed it oppressive, saying that Rs12 trillion out of the country’s annual Rs18 trillion tax revenue is collected through direct and indirect taxes paid by ordinary citizens.

He said the salaried class alone contributed Rs605 billion annually in income tax, while consumers continue to bear heavy petroleum levies and utility taxes.

“The government is squeezing the common man while paying around Rs2 trillion annually to IPP owners,” he said, adding that expensive energy contracts were a major burden on the national economy.

The JI emir said a forensic audit of IPP agreements would expose massive irregularities involving both current and former rulers.

He also criticised re-gasification contracts, saying that payments continued even during periods when gas supplies remained suspended.

He announced that JI would oppose any move to sign further contracts for 26,000 megawatts of electricity generation and

called for the immediate commencement of work on the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project, expansion of

education spending, strengthening of local governments, taxation of large landowners and greater support for small farmers.

Hafiz Naeem criticised widespread corruption in the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP), saying that despite years of spending, poverty levels had increased significantly over the past two years.

He further said Pakistan’s education budget, currently around 1.7pc of the GDP, should be increased to at least 4 to 5pc.

Expressing concern over the country’s education crisis, he said nearly 27.5 million children remain out of school nationwide, including around 10 million in Punjab alone.

Responding to questions from journalists, the JI emir criticised the government’s privatisation policy and reiterated hisparty oppositionto the sale of national institutions.

He said the party had prepared a comprehensive policy paper proposing alternatives to privatisation.

He also called for reforms to the pension system, saying all state institutions, including the judiciary and military, should be subject to the same standards of accountability. While opposing cuts to defence spending, he suggested reviewing administrative expenditures within the military budget.

Published in Dawn, June 5th, 2026