Reporting snapshot · 23 September 2026. Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) chief Hafiz Naeemur Rehman announced on Tuesday, 22 September, that the party is postponing the next phase of its long march to Islamabad at the request of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, and that JI workers will remain in Multan until a meeting between the party leadership and the prime minister. The account of the decision rests on JI's announcement and the Prime Minister's Office statement as reported by Geo News, Dawn, The News International and The Express Tribune. Whether the march resumes, and when, remains conditional on the outcome of that meeting; this is a dated snapshot, not a live tracker.
What happened
Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) chief Hafiz Naeemur Rehman announced on Tuesday that his party is postponing the next phase of its long march to Islamabad at the request of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, and that the party’s caravan will remain in Multan until the two sides meet, according to reports in Geo News, Dawn, The News International and The Express Tribune.
Speaking at a press conference in Multan, Rehman said the prime minister had contacted him and asked that the march be postponed, while inviting the party leadership for talks. “We will definitely meet the prime minister,” he said, adding that the discussion would take place once Shehbaz returns to Pakistan.
The announcement came after the prime minister’s office said Shehbaz had spoken to Rehman by telephone and asked him to postpone the sit-in in Islamabad. According to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), Shehbaz said the government was providing relief on petroleum products to economically vulnerable and middle-income sections of society amid difficult circumstances, and would continue to do so to the extent possible. The PMO said Rehman welcomed the suggestion and told the prime minister that JI was considering postponing the sit-in, with the two leaders agreeing to meet after the prime minister’s return and continue consultations.
A pause, not a withdrawal
Rehman was explicit that postponing the next phase of the march did not mean abandoning the party’s protest campaign. “Whatever happens, we will continue our movement and the sit-ins will continue,” he said, according to Geo News and The News International. The JI chief said party workers would stay in the field and that protest camps and sit-ins would continue until the meeting with the prime minister.
The party has framed the pause as the government’s “last chance” for negotiations. Rehman told The Express Tribune that JI had decided “neither to withdraw our demands nor our long march,” but that the party would “listen to what the prime minister has to say.” He said JI would seek written assurances from the government before making any decision about its future course of action, and that the party’s agenda was to ensure relief for the public rather than create chaos or mischief.
The decision was conditional on the substance of the promised talks. Dawn reported Rehman saying that if the prime minister announces relief at the meeting, “it is fine”; otherwise, the party would continue the long march “with the same force” in the first week of October. “Let the prime minister come so that talks can begin. Until then, our long march will remain camped in Multan,” he was quoted as saying by The Express Tribune.
The levy dispute behind the march
The march is the latest stage of a campaign JI has run for more than a month against the petroleum levy and rising fuel and electricity prices. The party announced sit-ins in provincial capitals from 16 August, called a nationwide strike on 3 September, and has since held demonstrations across the country. Rehman said on Tuesday that JI had held sit-ins at 510 locations and staged a shutter-down strike as part of the campaign.
The train march itself began from Karachi on Sunday, 20 September, after a fifth round of negotiations with the government ended without agreement. The caravan travelled through Sindh and southern Punjab before reaching Multan on Monday night. From Multan the party had planned to move towards Lahore before the final phase to Islamabad.
At the Multan press conference, Rehman reiterated the party’s core demand: a reduction in fuel prices and the abolition of the petroleum levy. He said JI had presented several proposals to the government for lowering petrol prices, but that officials had maintained the levy could not be reduced because of Pakistan’s commitments under its International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme. JI has rejected the government’s targeted fuel-relief scheme as a substitute for removing the levy.
Why the pause matters
The postponement is the first sign of a de-escalation in a standoff that had been heading towards the federal capital, where the government has sealed the Red Zone and said it would enforce an Islamabad High Court order barring parties from occupying public roads. The JI mobilisation has also been running alongside a separate, larger confrontation: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) planned march on Islamabad on 27 September to demand the release of Imran Khan.
The prime minister’s direct call, and JI’s decision to pause in response, mark a shift from the ministerial committees that handled the earlier rounds of talks. The government has described the outreach as part of an effort to provide relief through targeted measures — including the fuel-subsidy scheme — while defending the levy’s continued collection as necessary for revenue. JI, for its part, has said it wants a permanent, transparent mechanism rather than temporary concessions, and has warned that if no relief is delivered the campaign will resume with the same force.
The meeting, when it happens after Shehbaz returns from the 81st session of the UN General Assembly, will therefore determine whether the pause becomes a resolution or merely an interlude before the march moves again towards Islamabad.
What is still uncertain
The most important open question is what the prime minister offers at the meeting, and whether JI accepts it. Rehman has said the party will seek written assurances, and Dawn’s reporting indicates JI would resume the march in the first week of October if no acceptable relief is announced. The precise scope of any pause — whether it applies only to the train caravan in Multan or also to the converging road caravans from other provinces — has not been fully clarified.
The two sides’ accounts of the call also differ in emphasis. The PMO said Rehman welcomed the suggestion and was considering postponement, while JI’s own account, as reported by The Express Tribune, framed the pause as conditional on a meaningful meeting and written assurances. Neither side has yet published the terms of the promised talks, and the government has not said whether it is prepared to move beyond the relief package and price adjustments already announced.
Whether the pause holds will become clear only after the prime minister returns and the promised meeting takes place. Until then, JI workers remain camped in Multan, and the party has said it will not step back from its movement if talks fail to deliver.
Sources & reporting notes
This is a synthesis of published material, not eyewitness reporting. Sources were reviewed on 23 September 2026. The account of JI's decision rests on the party's announcement and the Prime Minister's Office statement as reported by Geo News, Dawn, The News International and The Express Tribune; the two sides' descriptions of the telephone call differ in emphasis, and no written terms of the promised meeting have been published.
- Geo News — JI postpones Islamabad long march, stays in Multan until meeting with PM Shehbaz22 September 2026 · Primary account of Rehman's Multan press conference: the postponement decision, the request for talks, the continuing sit-ins, the demand for lower fuel prices and levy abolition, the written-assurance condition and the PMO statement.
- Dawn — JI puts off Islamabad long march after PM's appeal, but vows not to abandon protest against petrol levy22 September 2026 · Independent report of the decision, Rehman's "first week of October" condition for resuming the march, the "give a chance to the government" framing and the continuing sit-ins.
- The News International — JI postpones next phase of Islamabad march at PM's request22 September 2026 · Independent confirmation of the postponement, the stay-in-Multan decision, the 510 sit-in locations and the written-assurance demand.
- The Express Tribune — JI suspends train march at 'PM's request'23 September 2026 · Independent report of the suspension, the "last chance" framing, the written-assurances demand and the government's IMF-linked explanation for the levy.
