QUETTA, Feb 24: The leader of the opposition in the Balochistan Assembly, Mr Kachkol Ali, has taken serious exception to the sidelining of the provincial government and people in the ongoing talks between Pakistan and Iran over the laying of the gas pipeline through the province.

Taking to newsmen here on Thursday, he criticized the government and said the people of Balochistan considered that they should be the prime beneficiary of the gas pipeline or other development projects within the twin provinces of Iranian and Pakistani Balochistan.

The residents of Kharan, Panjgur, Chaghai, Gwadar and Kech should be the first getting the facility of natural gas from Iran, he said. The opposition leader said it was the irony of fate that a man was representing Balochistan, who had no knowledge about its people, their traditions, region's topography and available resources on both sides of frontiers.

Mr Kachkol Ali said the prime minister should have taken the chief minister of Balochistan with the delegation to focus the issues concerned properly. "We have reservations about the revenue generated by the gas pipeline, and it is our legitimate constitutional right to demand a sizable share of royalty for Balochistan as the pipeline will be passing through the Baloch heartland," the leader said.