Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan Emir Hafiz Naeem ur Rehman has said the Punjab government has failed to protect women and provide basic services, adding that inflation has left households struggling to put food on the table while women and children face growing insecurity and deprivation.

Addressing a large women's gathering at the Jamaat-e-Islami sit-in outside the Punjab Chief Minister's House on The Mall on Saturday, Rehman said the protest would continue until the government withdrew the petroleum levy. He warned that the party would expand its campaign into a nationwide strike, shutter-down and long march if the government refused to accept its demands.

The Jamaat-e-Islami emir said sit-ins were continuing simultaneously at three locations across the country, describing the campaign as a broader struggle against inflation, independent power producers (IPPs), high fuel prices and the petroleum levy. "The issue is not merely petrol prices; it is about every household's kitchen," he said, adding that any increase in fuel prices triggered a chain reaction across the economy and pushed up the cost of living.

He noted that women were participating in large numbers because inflation had placed an unbearable burden on families. Mothers, he said, were cutting back on their own needs to pay their children's school fees while many households had been forced to struggle for basic food.

He said that Punjab had failed to provide women with adequate protection despite having a woman as chief minister. More than 4,500 rape cases involving women were reported in the province last year, he said, but only four out of every 1,000 accused were convicted. He added that the police and judicial systems were failing to provide ordinary citizens with justice and that the government had also failed to ensure safe public transport and security for women.