ISLAMABAD: Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Ameer Hafiz Naeem-ur-Rehman has announced that his party will not give up its right to march on Islamabad until the Petroleum Levy (PL) is abolished, warning that its protest campaign will be expanded if the government fails to provide relief to inflation-hit masses.
Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, the JI chief said the long march had been paused for a few days at Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s request. He said he would meet the prime minister after his return to Pakistan and that JI’s next course of action would depend on the outcome of that meeting.
“The poor people are paying around Rs140 per litre in the form of different taxes on each litre of petrol,” Naeem said. “The better option is to abolish the petroleum levy. Otherwise, people will take to the streets to seek the removal of the government,” he said.
The government should abolish the PL and generate the required financial resources by controlling corruption in the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), where, according to him, Rs1,300 billion is lost annually due to corrupt practices. He said that instead of sucking the blood of the poor, the government should bring down the rate of interest to 8 percent, which would ensure a reduction in inflation.
He said that when the interest rate was 22.5 percent, the rate of inflation was around 37 percent in the country, and when it was reduced to 10 percent, the inflation rate came down to around 7 percent; therefore, practically, a high interest rate increases inflation.
JI has been staging sit-ins and protests against the petroleum levy since August. The party launched road blockades at 510 locations before starting sit-ins at 42 locations across the country on August 16. The campaign later expanded into a train march towards Islamabad. The long march was subsequently paused following a telephone conversation between Hafiz Naeem and the prime minister.
Hafiz said JI would continue its protests during the pause and hold public meetings, including in Lahore and other cities. He said the party had held several rounds of negotiations with the government and presented workable proposals, but the government had not given a convincing response.
He said reducing the interest rate by three percentage points could save the national exchequer more than Rs1.5 trillion and called for cuts in government privileges and expenditures. He also demanded taxes on large landowners, an end to capacity payments to independent power producers (IPPs), and action against corruption in the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).
The JI emir also rejected the government’s argument that the petroleum levy was necessary because of International Monetary Fund (IMF) requirements. He said the IMF agreement did not specifically require Pakistan to meet revenue targets through the petroleum levy.
He also criticised the government for borrowing heavily from private banks and paying billions of rupees in interest, linking the issue to an unfair economic system. He said major political parties had failed to raise public issues and said JI’s campaign was aimed at challenging mafias operating in different sectors.
He said JI would continue its political and constitutional struggle and would not be deterred by criticism. He also reiterated his view that PTI founder Imran Khan was a political prisoner and said his party believed PTI workers were being subjected to injustice.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026
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