QUETTA, Aug 22: Dr Hayee Baloch, the chief of the National Party, has claimed that the people of Balochistan by voting for panels backed by the nationalists in the first phase of the local body polls have rejected the champions of the so-called mega projects.

Talking to newsmen here, the Baloch nationalist politician asserted that the voters had reposed trust in the four-party Baloch Alliance to foil what he called designs of the anti-people rulers to change the demographic composition of the province by turning the Baloch people into a minority.

He accused the government of using the state machinery to get its candidates elected but the voters responded by supporting the pro-people forces and rejecting the champions of the so-called development programme.

He questioned the claim of the provincial government spokesman that panels supported by the ruling coalition had won a majority of the union council seats in Gwadar, Awaran, Nushki, Bolan, Nasirabad, Mastuoog and Khuzdar and said that groups backed by nationalists had won most of the union councils in the districts.

He criticized the continued detention of Ali Asghar Bungulzai whose children were observing daily token hunger strike in front of the press club and of Dr Allah Nazar Baloch who, he alleged, had been tortured in custody and had now been moved to a hospital.