Jamaat-i-Islami has rejected the government’s Rs75 billion fuel relief package and warned its campaign will become a movement to remove the government (Express Tribune).
What its chief said
Hafiz Naeemur Rehman, speaking on the 31st day of sit-ins outside Sindh Governor House:
“This is not charity that the Pakistani nation wants. The nation wants its right.”
“Accept our demands with honour, accept them properly. We do not want anything for our party or for ourselves.”
He argued the advertising cost of the package exceeded the relief actually provided.
The demand
Complete abolition of the petroleum levy, which the party calls “extortion”, and an end to the daily pricing mechanism. It notes the Rs80 levy sits separately from the Rs5 climate support levy.
The plan
A march on Islamabad on 20 September, preceded by rallies in the 40 cities currently holding sit-ins. Strategy to be announced on 17 September.
Assessing the rejection
The advertising claim is rhetorical and almost certainly wrong on the arithmetic — Rs75bn is a large sum and no publicity campaign approaches it. Readers should discount that line.
The substantive objection is stronger, and this newspaper made a version of it on Monday: a rebate claimed by text message reaches only those who can navigate a registration system, while the levy is collected from everyone automatically. “Not charity but our right” is a claim about which of those two mechanisms is the default.
What the party has not answered
What replaces Rs1,567 billion a year. No alternative revenue source has been named, and a survey published this week found 66 percent of Pakistanis concerned about rising national debt.
A movement can demand the removal of a tax without costing its replacement. A party seeking to govern cannot.
The wider calendar
JI marches on the 20th, PTI on the 27th. The Islamabad High Court has barred parties from occupying roads in and leading to the capital; Punjab’s ban on gatherings of five or more expires on the 17th; about 500 loaded container vehicles have been impounded.
What is not established
No route or assembly point has been published for the 20 September march, and the government has not responded to the threat. The Rs1,567bn collection figure is JI’s and has not been independently confirmed.
[Image: X/File via The Express Tribune]
