HYDERABAD: Several hundred activists and supporters of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) took part in a rally and sit-in held at Hyder Chowk here on Sunday against excessive electricity and gas loadshedding in Sindh, alleged over-billing by the power utility, and usurpation of Sindh`s share in water.

Sindh PPP president Nisar Khuhro, Senators Sassui Palijo and Aajiz Dhamra, MNA Shaguta Jummani, MPA Sharjeel Inam Memon and several other seniorparty leaders addressed the participants.

They observed that the `Go Nawaz go` slogan had now become so popular that it would force Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to step down.Mr Khuhro told the audience that today`s protest was the manifestation of the fact that people of Sindh were fed up with the federal government due to the excesses being committed against them. `Denial of water and electricity [to Sindh and its people] is boundtoaffecttheprovincialeconomy being its vital components,` he said, adding that duration of power outages was being increased andsame was the case with gas.

It seemed that the government was pushing people to an era where the mankind had been using firewood.

Mr Khuhro reminded the PML-N that it was the same Hyder Chowk where the PPP had publicly resisted Mr Sharif`s plan to build greater Thal canal and Kalabagh dam. `The projects could not be revived till the day,` he said, adding: `We will not let the [federal] government usurp our water resources.

He said PPP would hold more such shows on the issue in other cities including Karachi and if MrSharif would still cling to power, the party would hold a sit-in in Islamabad.

He reminded the prime minister Sharif when [slain PPP chairperson] Benazir Bhutto had started a long-march, he had to stop down before it could even reach the federal capital.

Mr Khuhro said that af ter judges declared Mr Sharif a `thief`, everyone was calling him a thief.

PPP Sindh information secretary Senator Aajiz Dhamra blasted federal ministers Khawaja Saad Rafiq and Abid Sher Ali for their `vitriolic against Sindh`. Abid Sher Ali branded people of Sindh as power thieves and his ministry was cutting off electric supply to them because they did not vote for the PML-N, he said.

He condemned Mr Rafig`s remarks that Z.A. Bhutto had deceived the masses. Mr Dhamra reminded the PML-N that had the constitutional clause relating to a person contesting for premiership for a third term not been removed due to [PPP co-chairman] Asif Ali Zardari`s efforts, Nawaz Sharif would not have become the prime minister [in June 2013].

PPP deputy secretary general MPA Sharjeel Inam Memon accused PM Sharif of conspiring to weaken the federation. `Sindh is slapped with 20 hours of power outages a day and a robbery is being committed on gas reserves of Sindh,` he said.

He said Mr Sharif should be afraid of the day when [PPP chairman] Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari would give a call for a sit-in in Islamabad as this would mark the end of his regime.

Senator Sassui Palijo, MNA Shagufta Jumani, Ali Nawaz Shah Rizvi, Pir Amjad Shah, Saghir Qureshi and Ali Mohammad Sahto also spoke.