Jamaat-e-Islami emir Hafiz Naeemur Rehman said on Sunday his party will stage sit-ins on the roads of Rawalpindi and Islamabad if the administration does not clear its public meeting at Rawalpindi’s Liaquat Bagh (Geo News, Minute Mirror).
He was speaking at a press conference in Lahore. The rally itself was to be held in Rawalpindi later the same day, and he said he would also meet members of the business community there.
The venue
Naeem accused the administration of “delaying tactics” and of refusing permission for the gathering, and said the authorities would be responsible for any consequences if they did not change course (Geo News).
He also said the Punjab government had locked the gates of Liaquat Bagh, and that JI workers were ready to break the locks and enter the venue but had been stopped from doing so. That account is Naeem’s own, carried by Minute Mirror alone; no outlet has independently confirmed the gates were locked.
Neither account describes a formal written refusal, and neither carries any response from the Rawalpindi district administration. On JI’s own telling, permission has been withheld rather than denied on paper.
Day 15
JI’s sit-ins against the petroleum levy began on 16 August and are now in their 15th consecutive day. They are camped outside the Punjab chief minister’s residence in Lahore and outside the governor houses in Karachi, Quetta and Peshawar. Dawn reported a sit-in near Quetta’s Governor House led by JI’s Balochistan emir and provincial assembly member Maulana Hidayatur Rehman Baloch (Dawn).
The party has called a nationwide shutter-down strike for 3 September, announced by Naeem outside the Lahore CM House on 27 August (Dawn).
What JI is asking for
Abolition of the petroleum levy. Petrol fixed at Rs225 a litre for three years. Cancellation of the independent power producer contracts and an end to capacity payments. Roti at Rs10 (Dawn, 22 August; Dawn, 25 August).
The tax slice, checked
Petrol currently costs Rs342.02 a litre and high-speed diesel Rs371.44, on OGRA’s price sheet effective 00:00 on 29 August, the most recent the regulator has published. Prices are now revised daily rather than fortnightly, and those were the second consecutive cut: petrol came down 50 paisa on 28 August and a further 58 paisa on 29 August, diesel by 19 and then 17 paisa.
Naeem has said motorists pay Rs130 a litre in petroleum levy and other taxes on fuel. That is his figure, not the regulator’s.
OGRA’s own price build-up for 29 August, on its price publications page, puts the tax and duty component of petrol at Rs105.96 — customs duty of Rs20.96, a petroleum levy of Rs80, a climate support levy of Rs5, and no sales tax, petrol being exempt. For diesel the equivalent is Rs100.68: customs duty of Rs15.68 plus the same Rs80 levy and Rs5 climate support levy. Naeem’s Rs130 is some Rs24 above the regulator’s own total.
The single largest line in that build-up is the Rs80 petroleum levy — the exact charge JI is demanding be scrapped. Strip it out entirely and petrol lands at about Rs262 a litre, a cut of 23 percent and still Rs37 above the price JI is asking for.
Unresolved
Whether the Liaquat Bagh gathering went ahead, and on what terms, was not established at the time of writing. No official from the Rawalpindi administration or the Punjab government has been quoted saying the rally is barred, and no Section 144 order covering the venue has been reported. The strike call for 3 September stands either way.
