'Decisive phase': JI chief announces Islamabad march on Sept 20 against petroleum levy

GUJRANWALA: Jamaat-i-Islami chief Hafiz Naeemur Rehman on Friday announced that the party would march towards Islamabad on September 20 against the petroleum levy , warning the government that the protest would enter its “decisive phase” on the streets of the federal capital if the levy was not withdrawn before the march. Addressing a public gathering in Gujranwala, Rehman said caravans from across the country would converge on Islamabad and urged the “Form-47 rulers” to “read the writing on the wall” and provide immediate relief to the people. “If the petroleum levy is not abolished before the long march begins, the decision will be made on the streets of Islamabad,” he said, adding that failure to meet public demands would force the JI to launch a movement to bring down the government. The government levies Rs114 per litre in taxes and duties on petrol and Rs100 per litre on diesel.

The gathering was also addressed by JI Central Punjab Emir Javed Qasuri, Gujranwala Emir Mazhar Randhawa and other party leaders. Leaders of the JI Women’s Wing also attended the event. The JI’s sit-ins against the petroleum levy in Lahore, Peshawar, Karachi and dozens of other locations across the country entered their 27th day on Friday. Rehman also announced that he would address a women’s public gathering in Islamabad on Saturday and said the ongoing sit-ins would be expanded. Earlier, he chaired a meeting of party leaders from across the country at Mansoorah in Lahore, where the party discussed the next phase of its protest movement. Speaking in Gujranwala, Rehman said the JI had emerged as a source of hope for the people and added that rulers who had deprived the country of its rights for 79 years had now realised the party’s growing strength. He criticised the dominance of…