On , Imran Khan, leader of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, a prominent political party in Pakistan, gave a speech in which he called for a “civil disobedience movement” in which “we will not pay taxes, electricity or gas bills,” to the central government, in hopes of forcing the resignation of Pakistan’s prime minister Nawaz Sharif.
Tax strike supporters say they believe that Pakistan is over-reliant on International Monetary Fund support, and that the strike may spook the Fund into withholding funds or demanding stronger terms, either of which would weaken the Sharif administration.
Khan’s party is in charge of the government in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, and that government itself plans to withhold its federal taxes and utility payments. Asked what they would do if the government responded by cutting off utility service to the province, province Information Minister Mushtaq Ghani said that they would retaliate by cutting off the neighboring province of Punjab from the power generated by the Tarbela Dam, which is located in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
