LAHORE: Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan has decided to intensify its campaign against the petroleum levy and inflation, announcing sit-ins in all four provincial capitals on August 16 to force the government to withdraw the levy.
The decision was taken after extensive deliberations at a special meeting of JI’s central and provincial office-bearers chaired by JI Pakistan Emir Hafiz Naeem ur Rehman at Mansoorah on Saturday.
Under the plan, JI, its youth wing and women’s wing will participate fully in Independence Day activities across the country on August 14 and use the occasion to mobilise people around the party’s vision of a just system in Pakistan.
On August 16, JI Emir said, sit-ins will be staged outside the Punjab Chief Minister’s House in Lahore and the Governor Houses in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh and Balochistan.
The JI chief said the public 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.
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. He warned that the public could no longer be left to suffer the consequences of government policies and said the rulers would have to deliver their rights.
Rehman 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. He said Muslim countries should overcome their differences, strengthen mutual cooperation and build collective capacity to face regional and global challenges.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026
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