The Jamaat-e-Islami’s sit-in against inflated electricity bills and rising inflation has entered its eighth day at Liaquat Bagh, Rawalpindi. The protest includes 10 demands from the government, including significant reduction in electricity prices, elimination of unnecessary taxes, renegotiation of contracts with Independent Power Producers (IPPs), and cuts in government expenditures. Two rounds of negotiations between the government and the Jamaat-e-Islami leadership have ended fruitless. JI leader Hafiz Naeemur Rehman has left to attend the funeral prayer of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh but will rejoin the sit-in at night. Earlier, the JI emir criticised the former governments for approving IPP agreements, calling them criminal. He urged the government to make the IPP contracts public, warning that the public might stop paying electricity bills if the agreements’ realities are not revealed. He also stated that the country is held hostage by a small elite class that hinders Pakistan’s progress for its vested interests.