Pakistan’s Jamaat-e-Islami has suspended the next stage of its long march towards Islamabad at the request of prime minister Shehbaz Sharif. The party’s amir, Hafiz Naeem ur Rehman, told a press conference on Tuesday that party leaders, workers and the convoy will stay in Multan until they meet the prime minister after his return home.
Announcing the decision at the press conference in Multan, Hafiz Naeem said the prime minister had telephoned him to ask that the long march be suspended and had invited the Jamaat leadership to talks.
“We will certainly meet the prime minister,” he said. “But talks will only take place once the prime minister returns to Pakistan. Until we meet him, our sit-in and protests in Multan will continue, and the party will not step back from its protest movement.”
At the press conference, the Jamaat amir called the government’s relief and subsidy measures “inadequate” and repeated the party’s demands for lower fuel prices and the abolition of the petroleum levy. He said that although several proposals to cut petrol prices had been put to the government, the authorities had said the levy could not be reduced because of the conditions of, and pressure from, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme.
He said the party would seek written assurances from the government before deciding its next steps. The party earlier staged protests and shutdowns at 510 locations across the country against rising fuel and commodity prices.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report