Hafiz Naeem says to announce countrywide strike date on 13 Rabi-ul-Awwal

LAHORE: Jamaat-e-Islami chief Hafiz Naeemur Rehman has said that the party will announce the date of a countrywide strike on 13 Rabi-ul-Awwal.

Speaking to the media in Lahore on the party’s protest movement against petroleum levy and rising inflation, Hafiz Naeem said that countrywide shutter down will be called.

He said the party would give a call for a march to Islamabad after the countrywide strike. “We are in contact with traders,” JI leader said.

He said the government would have to abolish the Petroleum Levy, adding that protest sit-ins across the country would continue until abolition of the levy.

Speaking to the media on Monday Hafiz Naeem said: “We have no personal agenda; we have taken to the streets to raise issues affecting the people,” Hafiz Naeem said, adding that the burden of an “incompetent ruling class” was being borne by Pakistan’s poor.

Criticizing the government’s economic policies, he claimed that the government had allowed wheat exports, which had subsequently contributed to an increase in wheat prices in the domestic market.

He said those sitting within the system had failed to provide relief to the public, while there was still no clear account of wheat imported during the caretaker government’s tenure.

Hafiz Naeem also criticized the lack of relief for consumers following a reduction in diesel prices. He questioned the continued collection of the petroleum levy, saying it had no connection with petroleum products.