JI, govt to hold talks on Friday to work out plan for meeting between PM Shehbaz, Naeem

Dawn · 22/10/2026، 1:18:38 PM

Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) has said it will hold talks with the government on Friday regarding its demand to abolish the petroleum levy and on further high-level contacts between them. The committee-level talks were fixed following a telephonic conversation between JI Vice Emir Liaqat Baloch and Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal, according to a press release issued by JI on Thursday. The JI has been demanding for over two months that the Centre abolish the levies — Rs114 per litre on petrol and Rs100 per litre on diesel — as the total prices have skyrocketed due to conflicts in the Middle East since March. Friday’s talks between the two sides’ negotiating committees will take place at Punjab House in Islamabad, where they will also work out a schedule for a proposed meeting between Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and JI Emir Hafiz Naeemur Rehman, the party said. According to the statement, despite the planned talks, Baloch reiterated his party’s call for countrywide protests tomorrow (Friday). “JI will hold peaceful protests at district headquarters across the country on Friday to demand the abolition of unjust petroleum levy,” Baloch was quoted as saying. The party would continue its protests alongside negotiations with the government, he declared. “The campaign is not about the party’s interests but aimed to secure public relief, reduce unbearable production costs and revive economic activity.” The party vice chair also called a meeting of the JI negotiating committee in Islamabad ahead of the talks. According to the JI statement, Iqbal, who heads the government’s negotiating committee, informed Baloch that the meeting had initially been planned for Tuesday or Wednesday but was postponed because of the government’s “urgent engagements”. Baloch, in the press release, argued that reducing the burden of petroleum levies and payments to independent power producers (IPPs) was essential to easing pressure on households, agriculture, industry, trade and small businesses. “Such measu