Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Emir Hafiz Naeem ur Rehman has warned to expand the party's sit-ins if the government fails to meet the demands ofrevising tax rates and reviewing agreements with independent power producers (IPPs).
"JIdoes not want confrontation and chaos but this should not be taken as its weakness," said Naeem while addressing the sit-in outside Governor House in Karachi on Sunday.
The JI is holding protests against high cost of electricity which prompted the shutting down of a major road to Islamabad, while protests were held in Karachi and several other cities as well.
Asking the governmentto learn from what had been going on in Kenya and Bangladesh, Naeem urged those in the corridors of power to reduce the electricity tariff before it was too late and people refused to pay the bills.
Talking about the issue of IPPs, he said Rs8,500 billion had so far been paid to the IPPs and the nation would not accept such kind of plundering of its resources anymore.
He demanded the authorities run a forensic audit of the IPPs’ accounts in order to ascertain the truth, saying that it would exposemultiple parties who had been the beneficiaries of the illogical agreements with the IPPs.
The JI emir alleged that the rulers were hands in gloves with criminals and that was the reason they did not want to take any drastic action against those involved in plundering resources of the country.
He also said the the people in power were reluctant to negotiate with the IPPs despite the fact that negotiations were a matter of routine when it came to international agreements.
"Both the dictators and the politicians who were planted in the former’s nurseries had failed the country," Rehman said, adding that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) practically sat on both sides of the table when it came to talks.
He added that the local agents of the IMF in the ruling class had caused the prevailing economic crisis.
Talking about excessive taxes, he demanded the government rationalise the tax regime and provide relief to the masses.
"Health, education and food security sectors were exempted from taxes as per the IMF programme," the JI chief said, lamenting that the government even imposed taxes on these sectors.
Naeem called for reducing the interest rate immediately and eliminating it gradually in order to provide some breathing space to the poor. He also demanded an end to the monopoly of the Karachi Electric (KE).