Nationwide protests & sit-ins against expensive electricity & IPPs mafia to be held tomorrow: Hafiz Naeemur Rehman

LAHORE, Jan 30 (SABAH): Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan Emir Engineer Hafiz Naeemur Rehman has said the nationwide protests and sit-ins against expensive electricity and IPPs mafia will be held on Friday.

“We demand reduction in power tariff. We are re-laughing peaceful resistance movement for the rights of people. Our struggle will continue until people’s demands are met,” Hafiz Naeemur Rehman announced while addressing training workshop for the JI workers at Mansoorah on Thursday.

The current government, he said, came to power through electoral fraud and the support of the establishment. The rulers, he vowed, either has to provide relief to masses or to go home. He further announced the formation of public committees to fight for people’s rights. “The government will also have to withdraw unjust taxes on salaried class,” he asserted. The JI chief said the government is favoring mafias, citing agreements with IPPs and tax exemptions to feudal. “Why is the money saved after ending agreements with the IPPs not being used to provide relief to the people?” he questioned.

He criticized parliamentarians for increasing their own salaries while burdening ordinary citizens with excessive taxes. “Salaried individuals are being crushed under heavy taxation, farmers are suffering, and electricity bills have become a disaster for households,” he lamented. He dismissed the government’s claims of reducing inflation as mere lies.

Hafiz Naeemur Rehman stated that the prevailing global conditions indicate that the United States will be left isolated, and those who rely on it will also suffer the consequences. “Politics cannot be done by those who look towards the local and global establishment. The future belongs to Jamaat-e-Islami,” he declared.

Hafiz Naeemur Rehman criticized capitalist elites for holding democracies hostage worldwide, stating that democracy is controlled in Pakistan in the same manner as in the West. He said that Washington funded efforts in Israel to keep anti-war politicians out of power, adding the U.S. is fueling global destruction. The JI Emir said that after Afghanistan, Israel’s defeat in Gaza is essentially America’s defeat. “Latin America is also uniting against Washington’s injustices and oppression,” he said. Referring to former U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan to evacuate Gaza, he stated that Palestinians thwarted this scheme through timely action. “The day is not far when the U.S. and its allies will face humiliation across the world,” he remarked.

He reiterated that people everywhere are searching for a system based on justice, which, he said, is the Islamic system. He emphasized that JI’s struggle is for the establishment of Islam in all spheres of life.