JI continues protest against taxes

LAHORE:Jamaat-e-Islami continued its protest demonstrations in its campaign to force government withdraw taxes and fuel adjustment charges from power tariff, holding a large demonstration outside Wapda House on Mall Road Monday evening.

Led by JI Lahore ameer Zikrullah Mujahid, JI workers holding banners and placards raised slogans against Wapda authorities and government. Addressing the workers, Zikrullah warned of an indefinite sit-in outside Wapda House if their demands were not met in ten days and the extortion by the government in electricity bills is not stopped. He demanded the government must withdraw fuel adjustment and other taxes immediately to provide relief to the masses already facing backbreaking price hike and unemployment which forced them to en masse suicides. He warned the govt against using force against the peaceful protestors, saying he was ready to go to jail for the rights of the people. He said JI is not doing politics of self-interest but struggling for the rights of the people, saying if rulers did not ensure the people their rights, then JI will be forced to snatch the people’s rights. He also asked JI workers to go door-to-door to collect funds and relief items for flood-affected people. JI’s social welfare wing, Al-Khidmat Foundation will continue its relief operations in flood-hit areas until the last of the flood-affected person is provided relief. Zirkullah lamented that flash floods caused massive devastation, leaving millions of people homeless and suffer helplessly under the open sky but the incompetent rulers and bureaucracy failed to take any preventive measures or even warn the people to evacuate for the sake of their own lives.