What happened
Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) chief Hafiz Naeemur Rehman said he would announce a long march towards Islamabad on 10 September if the government rejected the party’s proposals on fuel prices and the petroleum levy. He spoke at a sit-in in Karachi on 8 September, ARY News reported. He also threatened a march on Islamabad’s D-Chowk if the demands were not accepted.
The date was tied to the talks with the government. A government committee was due to meet JI on Thursday, 10 September, and Mr Rehman said it would be asked how government departments had responded to the party’s proposals. He said the sit-ins would continue even if the government accepted a proposal, until it was implemented.
The demands
JI wants the petroleum levy withdrawn and petrol cut to Rs225 a litre, according to ARY. Mr Rehman also demanded an end to what he called extortion taxes and criticised dependence on the IMF. The Express Tribune reported that he had earlier announced a train march towards Islamabad from the sit-in outside the Punjab Assembly, then in its 23rd day, and warned of a nationwide wheel-jam and shutter-down strike if the government did not give relief.
Government negotiators said they were reviewing six proposals JI had submitted on 7 September. Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal said economies worldwide had been affected by the war in Iran and the government did not want to burden the public, the Tribune said.
How the campaign got here
The escalation follows a summer of protest. JI had announced 510 nationwide sit-ins against the levy, began sit-ins outside governors’ houses on 16 August, and called a 3 September strike that persuaded the government to talk. The first round of talks, reported in our coverage of the six proposals submitted on 7 September, left the party’s deadline in place.
What happens next
The Thursday meeting is the immediate test. The reports do not say what the government will offer or whether it will move on the levy itself. If talks fail, Mr Rehman has said he will name a march date. How the government would respond to a march on the capital has not been stated.
Later background: on 10 September the Express Tribune reported that Mr Rehman deferred the march decision by a day to Friday, 11 September, after two rounds of talks produced no concrete progress.
