KARACHI: Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazal (JUI-F) staged large protest demonstrations in different parts of the megacity on Friday, rallying against rising petroleum prices, inflation, heavy taxation and what they called “anti-people” economic policies of the government.
JI Karachi organised 14 protests across the megacity under its countrywide campaign. The central demo was outside Jamia Masjid Khizra in Saddar, led by Saifuddin Advocate, acting chief of JI Karachi and opposition leader in the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation.
Protesters brandished banners and placards against the petroleum levy, high fuel prices, and electricity tariffs and load-shedding, demanding the government cut petrol prices, scrap the petroleum levy and eliminate fixed charges in electricity bills.
Saifuddin Advocate vowed to sustain JI’s movement against inflation and oppressive taxes, urging Karachiites — especially youth, traders, labourers and students — to join the campaign.
He denounced IMF-driven loan agreements, saying each deal had only deepened the tax burden on ordinary citizens and trapped Pakistan in an interest-based debt cycle. He claimed petrol’s actual cost stood at Rs270 per litre while citizens were being compelled to pay Rs409.
The JI leader slammed the government for mulling taxes on solar energy systems precisely when citizens were adopting solar power to escape unaffordable electricity and persistent load-shedding. He blamed authorities for piling additional taxes on the public rather than slashing official expenditures.
On Karachi’s civic crisis, he said the city’s water and sewerage system had collapsed, leaving more than half the population without clean drinking water, and warned that uncollected waste could overwhelm the city during Eidul Azha. He lamented that 79 years after independence, broken roads, overflowing drains and power outages still defined daily life while students sat exams in sweltering heat.
Separately, JUI-F held at rally at Site Town, Shershah Colony in response to a call by JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman. Workers and residents turned out in large numbers, holding placards and banners.
Speakers included Maulana Qazi Ahsan Ahmad of the World Organisation for the Protection of Khatm-e-Nabuwwat Pakistan, JUI Site Town Ameer Maulana Azimullah Usman, Haji Azizur Rehman Aziz, Maulana Ataullah Shirin, Haji Zulfiqar and Dr Akbar Khan.
They charged that the ruling elite class had stripped citizens of the right to a dignified life, calling fuel and utility price hikes economic “bombardment” of the poor. They accused rulers of maintaining lavish lifestyles while the common man could not afford two meals a day.
The leaders warned that if anti-people decisions were not reversed, protests would engulf the entire country, leaving the government unable to contain the fallout. JUI, they declared, would stand with the people against every injustice and spare no sacrifice in defending public rights.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026
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