Jamaat-e-Islami emir Hafiz Naeemur Rehman has rejected the government claim that the agreements with independent power producers (IPPs) canot be renegotiated and said that in the past the state successfully renegotiated agreements over the Reko Diq project and signed out-of-court deals with the relevant parties. Speaking a press conference at the sit-in outside Sindh Governor House on Monday, Rehman questioned why the government does not do the same thing in the case of the IPPs. Immediate relief can be provided to people if mismanagement is addressed, he said and suggested that the government should focus on the Pakistan-Iran Gas Pipeline project, instead of keep pressing importing expensive RLNG.
The JI leader, while suggesting a way forward, demanded of the government to immediately withdraw the tax slab recently placed on the salaried class as a confidence-building measure in order to avoid any snag in negotiations. On the occasion, he revealed that the government had approached the JI for negotiations and also took its technical committee onboard. The technical committee of the government agreed to several points highlighted by the JI during the negotiations and sought time for consultations, he said, adding that since then practically the government had been on the run to gain time.
He made it clear that the government would not be spared and it would have to provide relief to the lower and middle classes of the nation. Further talking about the demands, the JI leader s.