Press Release
Ending Backbreaking Rises in Petrol Prices Mandates Liberation from the Global Economic Order and the IMF

Whilst claiming to make Pakistan a Madinah State, the rulers have crushed the people economically upon the demands of the IMF and the international economic order. Having claimed on 1 February any petrol price rises will be rejected, this tyrannical government raised the price to a historical high at Rs. 159.86 per liter. Whilst claiming to save the people from inflation, the regime is regularly increasing electricity and petrol prices, even though it has the ability to control them.

All rulers that come and go in the current system loudly blame the increase in petrol prices on international prices, whilst maintaining silence over the Petroleum Development Levy (PDL), at Rs. 30 per liter, and General Sales Tax (GST), at 17% on crude oil at the import stage. As for international prices, they are not determined solely on supply and demand, but by the manipulation of the world colonialist powers, particularly the US. So why should Muslims not take measures to ensure petrol prices are affordable? Why should Muslims not unify the defense capabilities of Pakistan and Turkey, the agriculture of Pakistan, the minerals of Afghanistan and the oil and gas reserves of the Iranian, Arabian and Central Asian states under one Khilafah? Why insist on prostration to the American economic order, based on divided, weakened, nation-states? Why must oil be brought in American dollars, when in 1971 President Nixon publicly totally broke the promise for dollar convertibility to gold? Why, should the Muslims not restore Islam’s stable gold and silver currency, when the rupee has fallen by more than 55% against the dollar, raising the prices of everything, regardless of ups and downs in the international prices? Why must the government sell domestic oil at international oil prices, when Pakistan and its regional neighbors have vast oil and gas reserves? Yet, not one ruler in the current system has worked to effectively secure Pakistan’s energy needs, slashing 18% off the import bill, whilst liberating Pakistan from the colonialist order and granting relief from inflation.

The Khilafah alone can liberate Pakistan, its economy and its people from the colonialist economic order, of which rising energy prices is a constant feature. In Islam, energy is a public property in the Khilafah state, which means that the state will be directly responsible for its discovery, extraction, refinery and production. It is not allowed to charge any tax on energy, ensuring supply at reasonable prices. The Khilafah will unify the Muslim states as one state, whilst Central Asia’s oil and gas reserves alone are enough to meet the needs of the region. In the absence of the Khilafah, rulers will increase the price of petrol as international prices rise, the rupee weakens and IMF-dictated taxation rises. Indeed, there can be no economic stability, prosperity or relief in the absence of the Khilafah. So, O Muslims of Pakistan, reject democracy and dictatorship, by demanding that your relatives in the armed forces grant their Nussrah to Hizb ut Tahrir, for the re-establishment of Khilafah (Caliphate) on the Method of Prophethood. Allah (swt) said,

[إِنَّمَا كَانَ قَوْلَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ إِذَا دُعُوا إِلَى اللَّهِ وَرَسُولِهِ لِيَحْكُمَ بَيْنَهُمْ أَنْ يَقُولُوا سَمِعْنَا وَأَطَعْنَا وَأُولَئِكَ هُمُ الْمُفْلِحُونَ]

“When those that believe are called to Allah and His Messenger in order that he (that is, the Messenger) may judge their disputes among them, nothing becomes them but to say: "We hear and we obey." Such shall attain true success.” [TMQ Surah An-Noor 24:51].

Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir in Wilayah Pakistan