PESHAWAR: Jamaat-i-Islami workers on Friday blocked roads across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and staged rallies and sit-ins against the frequent increases in oil prices and the imposition of the petroleum levy.

Jamaat activists also held protests countrywide, including Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi, Rawalpindi and other major cities, on the call of central emir Hafiz Naeemur Rehman.

During the protests in KP, major routes, including the Peshawar-Islamabad Motorway, Indus Highway, Hazara Motorway, Swat Motorway, and the historic Bab-i-Khyber on the Pakistan-Afghanistan Highway remained closed to traffic while only ambulances were allowed to pass.

Protest camps were established at the Peshawar, Charsadda, Rashakai and Anbar interchanges of the Peshawar-Islamabad Motorway, where large numbers of Jamaat workers and supporters gathered under the leadership of district and local party officials.

At the Peshawar Interchange, the demonstration was led by Jamaat’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (Central) president Abdul Wasay, Peshawar district emir Bahrullah Khan Advocate and others.

Speaking on the occasion, Abdul Wasay and Bahrullah Khan said that following the Iran-Israel conflict, petroleum prices in Pakistan were first increased on a fortnightly basis and were now being raised daily, while the government was placing an additional financial burden on the public through the petroleum levy.

They claimed that Jamaat was holding sit-ins at 510 locations across the country against the continuous increase in petroleum prices and the ‘oppressive’ petroleum levy.

The JI leaders said that an estimated 30 million motorcycle riders across Pakistan consumed at least one litre of petrol daily and that the government collected Rs124 per litre in petroleum levy from them. They claimed that nearly Rs1.2 trillion had been collected over the past year from poor motorcycle owners, many of whom were not registered taxpayers. According to their estimates, the government collected nearly Rs1.9 trillion from the public through the levy over the past year.

The speakers said that while the government cited global market conditions to justify daily fuel price increases, it failed to pass on the benefits to consumers when international oil prices declined. They said the daily pricing mechanism had left consumers at the mercy of petrol pump owners and the petrol mafia.

The speakers also accused the government of obtaining loans from the IMF, the World Bank, and other international financial institutions under stringent conditions, alleging that these funds were lost to corruption while ordinary citizens were made to bear the repayment burden through higher fuel prices and petroleum levy.

The speakers alleged that the ruling elite and bureaucracy were unwilling to give up their privileges and lavish lifestyles while placing an increasing financial burden on the country’s poor.

Besides, JI district chapters in Mansehra, Swabi, Mohmand, Lower South Waziristan, Haripur, Battagram, Bajaur and Chitral also staged demonstrations.

In Charsadda, JI workers staged a sit-in at the motorway interchange blocking it for traffic.

JI district emir Shah Hussain Advocate, provincial deputy emir Mohammad Riaz, district bar association president Mujeebur Rehman Advocate, JI general secretary Fawad Ahmed and others addressed the protesters.

The speakers criticised the petroleum levy, saying it had placed an additional burden on already struggling consumers.

In Abbottabad, addressing a sit-in held at Fawara Chowk, Jamaat Hazara emir Abdul Razzaq Abbasi demanded that the government bring down the oil prices.

Published in Dawn, August 8th, 2026