Govt delegation calls on protesting JI leadership in Rawalpindi

• Information minister asks JI Emir Hafiz Naeem to end sit-in.
• Naeem declines to end protest until demands are accepted.
• Tarar says formal process for talks with JI to begin today.

RAWALPINDI: While Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) continues its sit-in protest at Liaquat Bagh in Rawalpindi, the government has initiated formal communication with the party to have "serious talks" as the former continues its demonstration against rising inflation and exorbitant electricity bills, The News reported.

A three-member government delegation that included Minister for Information and Broadcasting Attaullah Tarar, Minister for Energy Awais Leghari, and MNA Tariq Fazal Chaudhry called on the JI leadership late on Saturday night at the site of the sit-in on Murree Road, Liaquat Bagh. The delegation extended an invitation for talks.

A spokesperson for the protesting party said Naeem had declined to end the protest until their demands were accepted. Quoting the JI chief as saying he said they would definitely hold negotiations, nevertheless their demands would not be compromised.

The leaders of the ruling party, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), later met JI Vice Emir Liaquat Baloch and traders' leader Muhammad Kashif Chaudhry briefly.

Tarar, in a statement following his meetings, apprised media that the formal process for talks with the JI would begin on Sunday. "The JI leadership will constitute a committee to start the process of talks with the government," he maintained.

Earlier on Saturday, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi called the JI vice emir to discuss the religio-political party’s demands. During the telephonic conversation, Baloch apprised the minister about the JI’s demand to end the protest.

The party on Friday claimed at least 1,150 of its workers were arrested while trying to march towards the federal capital after authorities had imposed Section 144 across Punjab and Islamabad.

Vowing to continue its protest, since then the JI has staged a sit-in in Rawalpindi, blocking the major Murree Road leading to widespread traffic disruptions across the city.

Earlier, speaking to party workers at the sit-in, Naeem called on the Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz-led Punjab government to release his party’s activists and withdraw the cases lodged against them.

Stressing that if their demands were not met, Naeem said that the party had the option to direct its protest “in any direction”.

“Fascism and talks cannot go hand in hand,” he said.

Speaking on the issue of talks with the government, the JI chief said that the party had reservations about the names that had come from the government side.

Revealing that the party had empowered Baloch to hold talks, he noted that he would announce the JI’s negotiation committee once the government announced its own and their reservations on the names proposed by the other side were addressed.

He also announced to hold a public rally at the metropolis’s Murree Road on Sunday evening which would be followed by a women’s gathering on Monday.

Meanwhile, the JI put forward a nine-point charter of demands to the government to provide relief to the masses. Addressing a press conference, Baloch said the interior minister contacted JI leadership thrice. “The process of talks can start once the government releases our workers and remove reservations,” he said.

The JI leader said his party wanted to resolve the issue peacefully but first the federal and Punjab governments should release workers arrested from different places.

He said the police also raided his house in Lahore and detained his guests and servants from there.

To start with the agenda of demands, he said:

• It should end Petroleum Development Levy on all the petroleum products and withdraw increases in prices of these products.

• 20 % reduction in prices of food commodities, electricity and gas tariffs.

• Renegotiate agreements with IPPs, particularly end clause of agreement on making payments in US dollar.

• Reduction in taxes such as on agriculture and industrial sectors.

• Ensure incentives to industrial sector, trade and investment.

• Withdrawal of increase in taxes on the salaried class and imposition of taxes on privileged class.

• Cut in non-development expenses by 35 %.

• Withdrawal of all taxes on stationery and other items used in education and training of children.

JI Karachi stages 20 sit-ins in solidarity with Pindi protesters

The JI Karachi organised 20 sit-ins across the city on Saturday to express solidarity with the protest in Rawalpindi, which is calling for the abolition of contracts with independent power producers (IPPs), a rationalised tax regime, and relief for the salaried class.

JI leaders Saifuddin Advocate and Taufiquddin Siddiqui, among others, addressed the gatherings.

The protests were participated by a host of party workers and Karachi residents, and large screens were set up to display the proceedings from Islamabad. JI Karachi chief Munem Zafar has already travelled to Islamabad to join the sit-in there.

In their addresses, JI leaders Taufiquddin Siddiqui and Saifuddin Advocate informed participants that despite a brutal crackdown by the police, thousands of citizens had gathered on Murree Road.