Citizens caught in snarl-ups as JI protests against petrol, electricity price hikes

The Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) on Tuesday staged “engine switch off protests” on major roads in Karachi against soaring petroleum and electricity prices.

Several party workers converged at 15 different points at around 5pm and switched off the engines of their vehicles. Following this, massive traffic jams were witnessed across the city.

Addressing a protest demonstration at Shahrah-e-Faisal, Karachi JI chief Hafiz Naeemur Rehman said that the caretaker government was continuing “cruel” policies of the previous governments. He said that Caretaker Prime Minister Anwarul Haq Kakar did not have powers to reduce the fuel and energy prices but had the capacity to increase the inflation.

The JI leader said that peaceful and coordinated resistance was the only option and way forward for the oppressed segments of the society. He demanded that feudal lords be brought under the tax net to provide relief to poor masses. “JI would tighten the noose around the neck of corrupt rulers and cut off their ways,” he said, adding that the worsening economic situation was pushing many people towards suicide.

He announced that the JI would be holding such protest demonstrations at 100 points in the city in future if the prices of petroleum products and electricity were not brought down immediately.

He said the electricity and petrol bombs had forced people to take to the streets. Quoting some social media reports pertaining to the recovery of local and foreign currencies worth billions of rupees during a raid at a building in Rawalpindi, he said that it was a matter of concern for the entire society that the media was unable to name the suspects.