Jamaat-e-Islami Holds Countrywide Protests Against Price Hikes, Sugar Mafia

11گھنٹے پہلے

Lahore– July 19: Responding to the call of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Emir Hafiz Naeem ur Rehman, people in different cities took to the streets on Friday to protest the relentless hike in electricity tariffs, petroleum prices, and the unchecked exploitation by the sugar mafia.
Major protests were held in cities including Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar, Quetta, and dozens of others across the provinces. JI leaders, workers, and people from different walks of life participated in large numbers, carrying banners and placards condemning the government’s anti-people economic policies and demanding immediate relief for the inflation-hit public.
Protesters chanted slogans against rising living costs, demanding the reversal of recent price increases and stricter control over cartels operating under state patronage. The demonstrations expressed widespread public anger over the Rs12/litre diesel and Rs6/litre petrol price hikes, despite declining oil prices in international markets.
Addressing the Lahore protest outside JI headquarters in Mansoorah, Secretary General Ameerul Azim slammed the government for protecting mafias at the cost of public suffering. He vowed that the JI will continue struggle for the rights of the people. He reminded the incumbent rulers their rhetorics against inflation while sitting at opposition benches. He said the ruling elite paid least attention to the common man’s problems and only protecting its self-interests. He demanded that the government take urgent steps to reduce electricity bills, rein in the sugar mafia, and end what he called the economic persecution of the poor. He warned that continued inaction would intensify public unrest in the days ahead.
Similar sentiments were echoed by party leaders and activists in protests from Peshawar to Hyderabad, and from Sahiwal to Gwadar.
The JI has reiterated its commitment to continue raising the people’s voice against economic injustice and corruption.
Meanwhile, large number of people held protest demonstration in Peshawar, Lower Dir, Upper Dir and Bannu. Protest demonstrations were held in different cities of interior Sindh, central and southern Punjab including Jhang, Toba Tek Sing, Okara, Badin, Sukkur, Hyderabad and Dadu.