BY FT Correspondent:
ISLAMABAD –Ameer Jamaat-e-Islami Punjab Dr. Tariq Saleem has criticized the government for imposing heavy taxes and levies on the public while the ruling elite continues to enjoy privileges and luxury expenditures.
Addressing participants of a sit-in outside the Chief Minister’s House, he said sustained public pressure had forced the government to reduce the price of diesel by Rs. 32 per litre, claiming that otherwise the burden on consumers would have been even greater.
Dr. Tariq Saleem said the sit-ins were part of Jamaat-e-Islami’s ongoing struggle for public rights and would continue until the people’s demands were accepted. He announced that, on the call of Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan Ameer Hafiz Naeem-ur-Rehman, a nationwide shutter-down and wheel-jam strike would be announced after 12 Rabi-ul-Awwal.
He alleged that excessive taxes on petroleum products, electricity and gas had increased public hardships, and questioned why the ruling elite was not reducing its own privileges and expenditures amid economic difficulties.
Criticizing the governments of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz, he said young people, workers and ordinary citizens were bearing the burden of petroleum levies, with around Rs. 130 per litre in taxes on petrol, including a levy of approximately Rs. 80 per litre.
