The government and Jamaat-e-Islami are set to hold fresh talks on the petroleum levy in Islamabad on Friday, a day after Federal Minister for Planning Ahsan Iqbal reached out to the party’s deputy chief, Liaquat Baloch, to defuse a fresh wave of street protests.
The negotiating committees of the two sides will meet in the federal capital on Friday to take up the levy issue. Baloch said Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is also scheduled to meet JI chief Hafiz Naeemur Rehman.
The renewed contact comes as JI prepares to launch the third phase of its nationwide protest movement against the petroleum levy on Friday, October 23, with sit-ins planned in all districts across the country.
Baloch said the party would pursue dialogue and agitation in parallel, telling reporters that negotiations and protests would continue side by side. He added that JI would insist on written assurances from the government before deciding its future course of action.
The two sides had agreed in early September to set up committees to recommend ways of reducing the petroleum levy, after the party announced a nationwide shutdown. In the first round of talks on September 7, JI placed six proposals before the government team.
On September 22, Hafiz Naeem called off the party’s long march towards Islamabad — whose convoy had by then reached Multan — at the prime minister’s request, pending a meeting with him. The JI chief had said PM Shehbaz asked for the march to be postponed and invited the party leadership for talks after returning to Pakistan.
JI has campaigned for months for relief to consumers through cheaper fuel and the abolition of the petroleum levy, staging sit-ins at 510 locations across the country and observing a shutdown strike as part of its earlier protest phases.
With sit-ins planned in every district from Friday, the day’s talks could decide whether the standoff escalates further or moves towards a negotiated settlement on one of the year’s most charged economic issues.
