Addressing participants of the sit-in, Hafiz Naeem said the protest would continue, while demonstrations and protest camps had also been launched in several other parts of the country, including Karachi, Peshawar, Hyderabad, Badin, Tharparkar, various cities of Punjab and Balochistan.
He announced that sit-ins would also begin in Balochistan from August 29. He said Milad-un-Nabi would be observed at the protest sites on 12 Rabi-ul-Awwal, followed by a nationwide shutter-down strike on 13 Rabi-ul-Awwal.
Hafiz Naeem said Jamaat-e-Islami believed in peaceful political resistance and did not want to promote politics through violence or clashes.
He warned, however, that its commitment to peaceful protest should not be mistaken for weakness, saying the party had the capacity to sustain prolonged sit-ins and block roads across the country.
He claimed Jamaat-e-Islami had demonstrated its street power on August 7 by blocking roads at 510 locations across Pakistan.
Criticising the petroleum levy, Hafiz Naeem accused the government of placing the burden of taxation on low- and middle-income families, workers, farmers, students and people who depend on motorcycles and cars for employment.
He claimed that taxes and levies of up to Rs130 were being collected on every litre of petrol, including more than Rs80 in petroleum development levy.
Addressing the government, he said the petroleum levy should be abolished or the government would face consequences. He claimed the government had collected more than Rs8 trillion through the petroleum levy so far.
Hafiz Naeem also called on the prime minister and Punjab chief minister to reduce government expenditure, saying the ruling elite should cut their privileges and expenses instead of increasing the burden on people already struggling with inflation.
He alleged that rulers used expensive official vehicles and received free fuel while electricity, gas and essential commodities had become increasingly expensive for ordinary citizens.
The Jamaat-e-Islami emir also criticised Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz, claiming poverty had increased in the province and that the government was focusing on symbolic measures rather than addressing people's problems.
He criticised agreements with independent power producers and capacity payments in the electricity sector, alleging that billions of rupees had been paid to power plants despite electricity not being generated.
Hafiz Naeem claimed around Rs1.7 trillion had been spent on generating electricity while Rs1.8 trillion had been paid for electricity that was not produced.
He also alleged irregularities in the stated generation capacity of some power plants, claiming that a plant listed as having a capacity of 125 megawatts was actually generating 100 megawatts. He said Jamaat-e-Islami’s previous 14-day sit-in had resulted in relief for consumers in their electricity bills.
Turning to education, Hafiz Naeem criticised the Punjab government and claimed that 11.8 million children in the province were out of school, while around 11,000 government schools had been outsourced.
He accused Maryam Nawaz of depriving Punjab’s people of access to public education and said there was a clear disparity between the educational facilities available to children of the ruling elite and those available to children from poor families.
He said providing education, healthcare and employment was the responsibility of the state.
Hafiz Naeem also highlighted the problems faced by farmers, saying growers in Punjab were under pressure and that government policies had affected cotton and wheat farmers.
He said farmers were not receiving appropriate prices for their crops, while consumers were also struggling to afford food. He called for affordable bread and fair prices for agricultural produce.
Criticising the political system, Hafiz Naeem said that despite political parties changing their names, the same families continued to dominate power.
He alleged that feudal leaders in Sindh, influential political figures in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and tribal chiefs in Balochistan had failed to resolve the problems of ordinary citizens.
He said merely changing the "branches and leaves" would not solve the problem and called for the existing system to be dismantled.
Hafiz Naeem also appealed to opposition parties and traders’ organisations to join Jamaat-e-Islami’s protest movement.
He said the sit-in did not belong to any single party or individual but represented the demands of Pakistan’s 250 million people.
The Jamaat-e-Islami chief said he was seeking nothing for himself or his party and that the protest was being held for the rights of the people. He urged opposition parties to support the sit-in, participate in the protests and join a collective struggle to address public grievances.
