KARACHI: Jamaat-i-Islami chief Hafiz Naeem ur Rehman on Tuesday criticised the government for increasing petrol prices on the one hand while also holding talks with his party on the other.

He demanded an end to the mechanism of raising petroleum prices on a regular basis, saying that millions of Pakistanis were suffering because of skyrocketing fuel cost.

Addressing outside Governor House on the 31st day of the party’s sit-in against the petroleum levy and agreements with independent power producers (IPPs), Hafiz Naeem said the JI had fulfilled all requirements for negotiations with the government. He warned that if the rulers continued to delay decisions, the JI would end the ongoing negotiations.

“If the government resorts to delaying tactics during the negotiations and fails to take a decision, these will be the last talks,” he said.

Hafiz Naeem rejects prime minister’s petrol relief package as ‘insufficient’

He said a JI delegation had met the government’s negotiating team earlier in the day and presented its demands regarding petrol prices and IPPs.

“Petroleum prices are causing severe difficulties for 250 million people,” he said, recalling that the present ruling party had itself criticised previous governments for dropping “petrol bombs” on people.

The JI chief rejected the prime minister’s “relief package”, calling it insufficient.

He said the announced Rs25 billion package was merely “a drop in the ocean” compared with the scale of the crisis.

“This is not charity that the Pakistani nation wants. The nation wants its rights,” he said.

He demanded the withdrawal of the petroleum levy, describing it as an “unjust tax” and claimed that more than Rs135 in taxes was being charged on every litre of petrol.

Hafiz Naeem also criticised an “expensive” government media campaign to publicise the relief package, alleging that a massive amount of public money was being spent on the campaign.

The JI chief said the party’s Karachi sit-in had broken its previous record of 29 days, while the number of participants was increasing day by day.

He said a strategy for a march towards Islamabad would be announced the day after tomorrow and vowed that the party would hold a “historic” march, with participants arriving from all over Pakistan.

“Jamaat-i-Islami is not a party whose leader can be arrested and put in jail to silence it,” Hafiz Naeem said, adding that its workers could neither be bought nor persuaded to compromise.

Recalling the JI’s protests in 1996 and 1997, he said the government of the time had subjected party workers to gunfire and tear gas shelling for three days.

He paid tribute to the late JI chief Qazi Hussain Ahmad and JI workers, saying they had stood firm like a wall during those protests.

“We will definitely come to Islamabad and will bear whatever happens but the uncle [Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif] and niece [Punjab CM Maryam Nawaz] should listen that you will not be able to bear the consequences,” he said.

Published in Dawn, September 16th, 2026