Jamaat-e-Islami Naib Emir Liaqat Baloch on Thursday said the government had urged his party to postpone its final call for a long march until Monday, seeking three more days to decide on the petroleum levy issue. Addressing a press conference following the second round of talks with the government's negotiating teams at Punjab House in Islamabad, the Jamaat-e-Islami leader said: "We want relief for the public on petroleum products." Baloch said that Jamaat-e-Islami had presented the government with six demands, adding that bureaucrats presented "a heap of difficulties".
Earlier this week, Jamaat-e-Islami submitted six proposals concerning the petroleum levy to the government and decided to continue negotiations while keeping its protest ongoing. Responding to a question, the Jamaat-e-Islami leader said the government had offered no response beyond beating around the bush. Separately, Jamaat-e-Islami Emir Hafiz Naeemur Rehman spoke by phone with Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi. Naeem said all opposition parties should raise their voice against inflation and public issues.
Fazl expressed support for Jamaat-e-Islami's campaign against the petroleum levy, while Afridi called for relief for the public and praised the party's democratic struggle on public issues. Baloch on Monday had stated that the government had collected more revenue from the petroleum levy than the target set in the budget. The Jamaat-e-Islami chief on Tuesday had issued a 10 September deadline for the government to withdraw the petroleum levy, warning that otherwise he would issue the final call for a march to Islamabad.
Addressing participants of a sit-in outside the Sindh Governor House, he had said Jamaat-e-Islami was holding sit-ins in 32 cities across the country and that the struggle would be taken to its logical conclusion. The Jamaat-e-Islami leader said the government claimed global oil prices had risen but did not reduce prices when international rates fell. He maintained that an Rs85 per litre levy and a total of Rs130 in taxes were being collected on every litre of petrol.