Sky-high energy bills are sparking protests near the Pakistani capital

Protests over skyrocketing energy bills closed a major road to the Pakistani capital on Monday as some 3,000 supporters of a major Islamist party continued their sit-in despite pouring monsoon rains.

In southwestern Pakistan, thousands protested against police brutality, internet shutdowns and highway closures. At least one person is said to have died.

Protesters demanding the government withdraw taxes on electricity to offset price increases have occupied a road in the garrison city of Rawalpindi since Friday as police prevented them from going to the capital Islamabad.

The protesters raised the white, blue and green flags of the Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami party and chanted: “This cruel increase in electricity bills is not acceptable.”

The government has met with protest leaders but has received no indication that it is considering accepting their demands.

Naeem-ur-Rehman, leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami party that called for the protests, says he is prepared to stay on the streets as long as necessary.

The government hiked energy prices by 26 percent in the last fiscal year, which ended June 30, before hiking another 20 percent on July 13. Officials say the increases were necessary to meet International Monetary Fund conditions for a $7 billion loan. made earlier this month.

The government has also added a confusing series of taxes on top of the basic price, resulting in a bill that has more than doubled for some Pakistanis.

“This month I paid 22,000 rupees ($80) for my electricity bill, while in May I paid only 10,000 rupees ($36),” said Asma Humayon, who teaches at a private school in the city of Lahore. “I don’t know how to run the kitchen; now half my salary goes to [the] energy bill.”

Hundreds of supporters of the Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami party, mostly women, also rioted in Lahore against the rising bills.

Pakistani economist Ashfaque Hasan said another factor in costly power is a deal the government made in the 1990s to buy power from private companies at high prices.

“Pakistan and these independent energy producing companies cannot coexist,” Hasan said.

Hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis have started using solar panels in recent years to avoid high electricity bills and power outages, although not everyone can afford the systems.

In southwestern Pakistan’s Balochistan province, thousands protested against police brutality, internet shutdowns and highway closures, community leaders said Monday.

A day earlier, people had crossed through Balochistan province to take part in a mass gathering when security forces reportedly opened fire to disperse the crowd, according to a statement from event organizers.

At least one person was killed and seven were injured, they said, while Amnesty International put the death toll at three.

However, the army said its own troops were attacked by a violent mob in Gwadar district and one soldier was killed and 16 wounded. A statement said propaganda against the military was being spread on social media. It said troops exercised extreme restraint to avoid civilian casualties, but that those behind the violence would be brought to justice.

It is the latest unrest to hit the country’s largest and poorest province. Armed groups have been waging an insurgency against the state and demanding independence for decades.

There are also deep grievances over enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings and the exploitation of Balochistan’s abundant natural resources at the expense of the people of the province.

The mass meeting was intended to express these grievances.

After Sunday’s violence, a statement from human rights group Baloch Yakjehti Committee Islamabad warned that the situation would escape state control if authorities continued to use force at peaceful public gatherings.

“You have caused an apocalypse in Balochistan in the last two days, injured many people, tortured a youth and forcibly disappeared hundreds,” the committee said.

A spokesperson for the Balochistan government, Shahid Rind, said the provincial minister was on his way to Gwadar city to try to contact the commission’s leaders.