KARACHI: Jamaat-e-Islami launched a cross-country "Train March" toward Islamabad on Sunday, with party leaders warning the government that protests over fuel levies and inflation could escalate into a movement to topple the administration.
The caravan departed from Karachi Cantt Station under the leadership of party chief Hafiz Naeem-ur-Rahman, following a 35-day sit-in in the southern port city. Organizers said the march will stop in Hyderabad and Rohri before converging on the capital, with additional caravans departing from Bab-e-Khyber and Balochistan.
Speaking to supporters, Muneem Zafar Khan, the party's Karachi chapter chief, called the levy on petroleum products "extortion," saying Rs 106 of the Rs 390 petrol price is collected as a tax with no connection to global oil rates. He said the march would prove "the final nail in the coffin of the tyrannical rulers."
Hafiz Naeem-ur-Rahman said the government has used global market conditions as a pretext to raise prices excessively, and blamed government-affiliated figures for profiting from what he described as mafias in oil marketing, refineries, flour and sugar.
"Our demand is that the levy extortion should be abolished," he said, adding that the party has no desire to protest in intense heat but has chosen to "take to the field" because citizens are suffering.
The JI chief warned that if the levy is not withdrawn, the protests will grow and "may it not happen that the protest turns into a movement to bring down the government."
He called on the government to "read the writing on the wall," saying the issue is not one of ego and that officials should "take credit" by abolishing the tax.
Sindh chapter chief Kashif Saeed Sheikh will receive the caravan at stations across the province. Women gathered in large numbers at the station to see off the marchers, and organizers said sisters would be called upon upon reaching Islamabad.
