Jamaat-e-Islami Emir Hafiz Naeem ur Rehman proposed another protest a few days after his party postponed its two-week-long sit-in in Rawalpindi. He said that the JI would issue a call for peaceful protest by collaborating with trader organizations.
“Talks with traders are now under progress. We have a number of choices [….] Will call for nonviolent protests alongside trade associations,” Naeem stated on Tuesday in an interview with the media in Islamabad.
The announcement of the new protests follows the party’s successful negotiations with the government to postpone its 14-day sit-in. The party’s demands included cutting high power tariffs and reviewing agreements with independent power producers (IPPs), which have come under fire because people are paying large bills that are attributed to capacity payments made to IPPs.The JI chief declared, “We are deferring and not ending the sit-in,” but he also threatened to call another sit-in if the government failed to carry out their agreement.
The announcement followed several rounds of negotiations between the JI delegation, led by Liaquat Baloch, and the government team, which resulted in an agreement that Interior Minister Moshin Naqvi and Information Minister Ataullah Tarar signed.
