JI rejects petrol price hike, warns of mass protests

LAHORE: Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) has strongly protested against PTI government for unleashing another wave of inflation over the already starving nation in blind following of IMF agenda.

JI Ameer Sirajul Haq rejected the recent rise in petrol prices, demanding the government to withdraw it and also bring down the prices of all basic commodities. In a statement here Friday, he warned the government against blindly following IMF agenda, burdening the already poverty stricken people with massive taxation and inflation. “JI will go for the anti-inflation and unemployment protest movement in every nook and corner of the country until the government controls the inflation and provides relief to the people,” he said.

Siraj reminded prime minister Imran Khan of his own criticism as opposition leader against the past government for raising petroleum levy, asking why the PTI government was now following the footsteps of past governments under IMF agenda. He reiterated that PTI, PML-N and PPP were the sides of the same coin and they have nothing to do with the welfare of the people. The government, he added, had set around Rs600 billion budget revenue target from petroleum levy and aimed at collecting Rs.43 taxes on every liter of petrol. The government, he said, should reduce the non-developmental expenditure, end corruption in institutions, introduce good governance and act against mafias who were making billions of rupees by sucking the blood of poor people.

He said the unemployment and inflation had made the life of a common man miserable as small business were closed down and earning opportunities from the market had almost vanished. The PTI, he said, in past three years proved itself an agent of the status quo and followed the policies of its predecessors.

Earlier, JI staged a demonstration on Multan Road against rise in petrol prices. Addressing the slogan chanting and banners waving protestors, JI leaders Zikrullah Mujahid, Abdul Aziz Abid, Ghulam Hussain Baloch, Ataur Rehman Siddiqi, Qari Waqar Chitrali and Maulana FAzal Akbar said PTI had proved to be the worst and the cruel government in country’s history. They warned that if government did not withdraw price hike, the protests would flare up all over the country.