July 31, 2002	Wednesday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 20,1423

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QUETTA, July 30: The central council session of the Balochistan National Movement (BNM) has decided to unite all nationalist, democratic and patriotic forces in the province to jointly contest the forthcoming general election.

The newly-elected secretary-general of the party, Dr Yaseen Baloch, made this announcement at a press conference with party leaders Dr Malik Baloch and Dr Ishaq Baloch here on Tuesday.

He said a three-member committee, comprising BNM President Dr Hayee Baloch, Dr Abdul Malik Baloch and Ayub Jatak, had been constituted for holding talks with all nationalist and democratic parties for making an election alliance.

Initial negotiations, he added, had already been held with the Jamiat Ulma-i-Islam, while more talks were expected very soon between two the parties.

The council had rejected the proposed constitutional amendments, and demanded that the government hold free, fair and impartial elections and hand over powers to elected representatives of the people, he said, adding that the council had observed that people of all the four units of the federation were not satisfied with the present situation, while atrocities were continuing against the smaller provinces, creating a sense of deprivation among the people.

The BNM leader said the council feared that with construction of the Gwadar Deepsea Port and the expected influx of people from different parts of the country in Gwadar, the local Baloch population would be converted into a minority.

He demanded that technical training institutes be set up in Gwadar as the president had announced in March on the eve of the ground-breaking ceremony of the port for giving training to the local youths to provide them maximum jobs in the Gwadar project.

Replying to a question, Dr Baloch said that if the government did not accepted their demands, they would resist all such moves peacefully, which would affect the local population.

ELECTION: The council re-elected Dr Abdul Hayee Baloch as the president of the BNM for another term. Dr Hayee polled 359 votes against his rival candidate, Ghulam Mohammad Baloch, who could obtain 94 votes.

The office-bearers, who were elected unopposed, included Lala Munir, vice-president; Dr Yaseen Baloch, secretary-general; Abdul Wahid, deputy secretary- general; Dr Ishaq Baloch, information secretary; Mehrab Baloch, junior deputy secretary; Abdul Rasool, cultural secretary; and Jumma Khan Shakarni, labour secretary.