Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) will go ahead with its long march to Islamabad in mid-November, party chief Hafiz Naeemur Rehman said on Tuesday, after meeting Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in the federal capital.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, the JI emir said the government had asked for another seven to 10 days to decide on abolishing the petroleum levy. He made clear, however, that the march would not be postponed again.
“We will no longer postpone the Islamabad march,” he said. “We will continue talking to the government, but the march will take place in mid-November.”
Hafiz Naeem said JI would keep preparing for the march and begin mobilisation across the country while talks continued. Both sides had agreed greater relief should be provided on petroleum products, but differed on how it should be delivered.
“We say the levy should be abolished; they say relief will be provided in phases,” he said, adding that the government was talking about gradually eliminating the levy while JI wanted it removed at once.
He urged the government to work out a mechanism for abolishing the levy and to announce its package before JI begins its march, arguing that the levy placed a disproportionate burden on middle- and lower-income households.
The JI chief warned that the party could step up its protest if its demands remained unmet. “We may have to sit on the streets and talk,” he said.
The two sides also agreed to form a six-member committee to review proposals and finalise recommendations, Federal Minister for Planning Ahsan Iqbal said at a joint press conference with the prime minister’s adviser Rana Sanaullah.
Iqbal said the JI delegation had been briefed on the government’s difficulties and had put forward its own suggestions. He said the global economy was under severe pressure and oil prices were rising.
Sanaullah said the government was providing a subsidy of Rs100 per litre to 12.7 million people, with the levy at Rs80, and that relief was expected to reach 20 million people.
The meeting follows earlier government-JI talks over the levy.
