LAHORE: Jamaat-i-Islami Pakistan (JI) emir Hafiz Naeemur Rehman on Tuesday announced a nationwide highway blockade and sit-ins on Aug 7 as part of the second phase of the party’s anti-petroleum levy and anti-inflation campaign.

The government had announced a petroleum and carbon levy on June 14, 2025, under an iron-clad commitment with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The JI campaign demands the immediate abolition of the petroleum levy, cancellation of costly agreements with independent power producers (IPPs), and measures to curb inflation and power outages.

Addressing a press conference at Mansoorah, Rehman said that JI workers and supporters would stage sit-ins on roads connecting all districts across the country, adding that only ambulances would be allowed to pass.

To mobilise public support ahead of the protest, the JI would hold 20,000 nationwide corner meetings before Aug 7, he announced.

The JI emir warned the government against using undemocratic tactics to suppress the protest movement, saying that any such action would turn the anti-inflation campaign into a movement aimed at bringing down the government.

JI deputy secretaries Nazir Janjua, Waqas Jafri and Azhar Iqbal Hassan, Lahore emir Ziauddin Ansari, and party Information Secretary Shakil Ahmed Turabi were also present at the press conference.

Rehman urged the government to immediately abolish the petroleum levy, scrap expensive IPP contracts and take effective measures to end electricity load-shedding. He also called on provincial governments to restore food prices to the levels prevailing before the Iran-US conflict.

Criticising the government’s decision to allow the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) to adjust petroleum prices on a daily basis, he termed the move deceptive, questioning what authority Ogra had over the petroleum levy and other taxes imposed on every litre of fuel.

He said that the government was extorting the public through the petroleum levy, adding that if the levy and other taxes were abolished, the retail price of petrol would fall below Rs200 per litre. Instead of burdening citizens, he said, the rulers should “reduce their own privileges and extravagant expenditures”.

Calling on the public to participate in the Aug 7 demonstrations, Rehman urged young people to bring their motorcycles onto the roads to strengthen the blockade.

Turning to broader governance issues, the JI chief criticised the performance of provincial governments, saying poverty in Punjab had increased by 41 per cent over the past six years. He claimed Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz had “sold 11,000 schools” and purchased an aircraft worth Rs11 billion for herself. He also criticised lawmakers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, saying that they had passed legislation granting themselves unlimited benefits.

He described the PPP as the establishment’s “A-plus team”, asking its chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari to tell the people who was in government in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) before issuing statements and deceiving the public.

Expressing concern over the deteriorating security situation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, particularly its southern districts, and Balochistan, Rehman urged the government to pursue dialogue to resolve ongoing challenges. He said the JI was engaging various stakeholders on the Balochistan issue and hoped that a grand jirga would be convened soon.

He welcomed reports of negotiations between state institutions and the Joint Action Committee in Azad Kashmir, saying that the JI had consistently advocated dialogue to resolve the crisis and had itself made efforts to facilitate talks. However, he said the government had not responded to the party’s initiatives.

Rehman said the second phase of the JI’s protest campaign had been launched after internal consultations and would continue until the public’s demands were met. He added that the party would engage religious scholars, traders, lawyers, students, civil society and other segments of society to broaden support for the movement.

Rehman has repeatedly criticised the government for its major hikes in petroleum prices — following the closure of the Hormuz Strait — and termed them a burden on the common citizen.

Earlier this month, JI activists staged demonstrations in KP against the high prices of petroleum products and rising inflation in the country. This followed rallies across the province last month against the hike in prices of electricity, gas and petroleum products, as well as heavy taxes imposed in the budget.

In May, Rehman approached the Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) against the petroleum levy, arguing that the government had effectively granted itself unrestricted power to tax citizens through executive notifications without parliamentary oversight.