Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif telephoned Jamaat-i-Islami chief Hafiz Naeemur Rehman and asked him to postpone the march on Islamabad (Express Tribune).
The call reached Rehman while he was leading the party’s train march north.
What was offered
“I have already announced a relief package for the nation. However, as soon as I return to Pakistan, I will meet the JI chief and announce a better relief package for the public.”
What was answered
Rehman said the announced package was “not acceptable in any way”, that the party had protested the petroleum levy for a month and a half, and that it would not withdraw until the levy was abolished.
He said he would consult the party leadership, with consultations on Tuesday morning and an announcement in Multan.
Why this is a change
For two weeks the state’s entire repertoire toward these marches has been prohibition: Section 144, 15,000 additional personnel, a thousand seized containers, detentions under the public order ordinance, an internet shutdown, spiked barricades at eight entry points.
This is the first reported instance of the head of government picking up a telephone.
That is worth marking, whatever comes of it. A costed policy demand about a specific tax is the kind of thing that can be negotiated, and this newspaper has argued since 14 September that the state was treating it as though it could not be.
Why it may not work
Because of what is being offered. The prime minister offered a better relief package — more money returned to some payers — and JI’s demand is the abolition of the levy itself.
Those are not the same currency. The party has already rejected the Rs75 billion package as “not charity… the nation wants its right”, which is a claim about the mechanism rather than the amount. A larger package answers a demand JI has not made.
And the difficulty on JI’s side
The party still has not said what replaces Rs1,567 billion a year, its own figure for the levy’s annual yield. A movement can decline to cost its demand. A party negotiating with a prime minister cannot for long.
Where the levy stands
Unchanged at Rs80 a litre, within Rs106 of taxes and duties on petrol. Petrol rose Rs4.61 today to Rs393.75 — its highest of this run.
What is not established
No date, venue or agenda has been announced for any meeting. It has not been reported whether the government has offered anything on the levy itself, and JI had not announced its decision at the time of writing.
[Image: File photo via The Express Tribune]
