LAHORE: The Jamaat-i-Islami has decided to intensify its campaign against the petroleum levy and inflation, announcing simultaneous sit-ins in all four provincial capitals on Aug 16 to force the government to withdraw the levy.
The decision was made in a special meeting of JI’s office-bearers chaired by JI emir Hafiz Naeemur Rehman at Mansoorah on Saturday.
Under the plan, the youth and women wings of the party will participate in Independence Day activities across the country on Aug 14 and use the occasion to mobilise people around the party’s vision of a just system in the country.
On Aug 16, the JI emir said, sit-ins will be staged outside the Punjab CM’s House in Lahore and the governor’s houses in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh and Balochistan. He added that the other day’s nationwide protest had given a new direction and fresh momentum to the JI’s campaign against the petroleum levy and inflation.
In Lahore, sit-in will be held outside CM’s house; Naeem says people want petrol at Rs225
“More than 510 organised and peaceful protests were held across the country, with people from remote areas of Balochistan and interior Sindh to Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa joining the demonstrations.”
Mr Rehman said the protests had demonstrated that JI was becoming a symbol of national unity as people from Chitral, Malakand, Hazara and central Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, as well as towns and cities across Punjab and Sindh, had raised their voices against the petroleum levy.
The JI chief claimed that the public had rejected the levy and wanted petrol prices reduced to Rs225 per litre. He said the ruling elite was pushing ordinary citizens into an unbearable inflationary crisis while refusing to cut their own privileges and lavish expenditures and added that the rulers were unwilling to give up official aircraft, reduce government vehicle expenses or end perks such as free fuel and electricity, while students, motorcycle users, workers and farmers were being burdened with indirect taxes through petroleum products. Even people whose incomes were below the taxable threshold, he added, were effectively being taxed through fuel prices.
Rehman said the JI had previously taken to the streets against, what he called the IPP mafia, forcing the government to negotiate with the independent power producers (IPPs) after initially refusing to engage with them. He said negotiations were held with 17 to 18 IPPs, resulting in some reduction in electricity prices, but the process was subsequently halted.
He said the unresolved energy crisis and rising prices had fuelled an inflationary storm that was affecting every segment of society, particularly salaried people, the middle class and poor families. Warning that the public could no longer be left to suffer the consequences of government policies, he said the rulers would have to deliver their rights.
The JI emir also welcomed the defence agreement between Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Türkiye, describing it as a positive development for the Muslim world. He said closer cooperation among Islamic countries could lead to a strong bloc and reduce Pakistan’s and the wider Muslim world’s dependence on external powers. He proposed expanding the defence cooperation to include Iran, Qatar, Bangladesh, Malaysia and Indonesia, saying efforts should gradually be made to bring all Muslim countries into such a framework.
Published in Dawn, August 9th, 2026
