ISLAMABAD : Jamaat-i-Islami Emir Hafiz Naeemur Rehman on Thursday announced a nationwide strike after Eid Miladun Nabi if the government failed to abolish the petroleum levy, warning that the party would expand its ongoing sit-ins into a countrywide protest movement.

Addressing a news conference in the Islamabad office of the party, he said the strike would include a wheel-jam and shutter-down, while the party would also establish protest camps across the country in support of its campaign. He said JI could also march on Islamabad on foot if the government failed to respond to its demands.

Hafiz Naeem said he would address the sit-in in Lahore on Thursday, while a public gathering would be held at the Karachi protest venue on Friday. JI’s Vice Emir Mian Mohammad Aslam, Deputy Secretary Syed Farasat Shah, Islamabad Emir Nasrullah Randhawa and Information Secretary Shakil Ahmed Turabi were present at the press conference.

The JI chief said inflation had severely affected ordinary citizens, while the “Form 47 rulers” had failed to deliver basic services. He described the petroleum levy as an unjustified “extortionary tax”, saying consumers were paying around Rs80 per litre under the levy.

According to him, the levy was originally introduced to finance the upgrading of Pakistan’s oil refineries. However, he said, the government had collected more than Rs8 trillion from consumers under the levy while spending less than Rs100 billion on refinery upgrades.

Hafiz Naeem said JI sit-ins in Lahore, Karachi and Peshawar were attracting increasing numbers of people, including traders, religious scholars, youth and civil society members.

The protests, he said, had evolved into a platform for raising wider public grievances.

Published in Dawn, August 21st, 2026