Jamaat-e-Islami has set the federal government a ten-day deadline to abolish the petroleum levy, warning that its long march towards Islamabad will go ahead in mid-November if the demand is not met. Party chief Hafiz Naeemur Rehman delivered the warning at a press conference in Karachi on Wednesday, after meeting Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif the previous day. He said the march would no longer be postponed, even though talks with the government would continue in parallel.

Talks continue, but the march stays on

The two sides remain apart on how relief should be delivered. According to the JI chief, the government wants to phase the levy out gradually, while his party wants it removed outright and a mechanism announced before the march begins. He argued that the levy falls hardest on middle- and lower-income households, and that the existing relief package gives the public too little benefit. The prime minister, he said, had asked for seven to ten days to decide.

Figures cited are the party's case, not a settled account

At the Karachi briefing, Hafiz Naeemur Rehman cited his party's own arithmetic, saying the levy collects around Rs150 billion a month against a relief package of Rs32 billion. Those figures are his claims, made in support of the party's argument, and they have not been independently verified in the reporting. He also criticised the tax system more broadly, pointing to alleged large-scale corruption in the Federal Board of Revenue as a reason ordinary consumers should not carry the burden.

A separate joint committee of government and JI members has been formed to examine fuel relief and proposals for phasing out the levy, but no agreed schedule for abolition has been published. Preparations for the march, including mobilisation across the country, are therefore continuing alongside the talks. The coming days will show whether the committee produces a concrete package, or whether the mid-November march becomes the main pressure point in the dispute.

Sources: The News and Sabah News.