What happened
Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) handed six proposals to a federal government team on Monday, 7 September, in the first round of talks over fuel prices and the petroleum levy, and both sides agreed to meet again on Thursday. JI deputy chief Liaquat Baloch said the party had presented its proposals, Bol News reported, and Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal said the government had asked for three days to review them and would forward them to the relevant ministries.
The Express Tribune reported that the meeting was held at the Ministry of Planning. The government side, led by Mr Iqbal, also included Rana Sanaullah Khan, Ali Pervaiz Malik and Bilal Azhar Kayani. Mr Baloch led the JI delegation. He described the atmosphere as pleasant, while Mr Iqbal said the government would tell JI if any proposal proved impractical. Neither report set out the contents of the six proposals.
Why the talks began
The meeting followed weeks of agitation. As JI’s 3 September strike shuttered markets, the government agreed to open talks on fuel taxes, and the two sides later settled on technical-level discussions, the Tribune said. The party had earlier begun sit-ins outside governors’ houses and, days before the first round, warned of a wheel-jam strike if relief was not forthcoming.
Mr Iqbal said economies worldwide had been hit by the war in Iran and that the government had been forced to take certain measures, adding that it did not want to burden the public, according to the Tribune.
Pressure outside the room
JI did not suspend its street campaign. The Tribune said party chief Hafiz Naeemur Rehman announced a train march towards Islamabad at the sit-in outside the Punjab Assembly in Lahore, then in its 23rd day, and warned of a nationwide wheel-jam and shutter-down strike if demands went unmet. Addressing a Karachi sit-in, he said the sit-ins would continue until any accepted proposal was implemented, ARY News reported. He also said he would announce a long march on 10 September if the government rejected the proposals, and that the party wanted petrol at Rs225 a litre.
What happens next
The second round was due on Thursday, 10 September, after the government’s review. Whether ministers will accept any of the six proposals, and whether JI will hold off on its march while they decide, was not clear from the reports. The party’s economic demands centre on the petroleum levy, which it says burdens all sections of society.
