ISLAMABAD - Leader of Opposition Shahbaz Sharif will be brought here to attend the National Assembly session starting today and in this connection the necessary arrangements and legal formalities were already completed.

Punjab Home Minister wrote a letter to the federal government to make necessary security arrangements at the official residence for Leader of Opposition in National Assembly in Ministers’ Enclave that would be declared sub-jail, where Shahbaz Sharif would be kept during the session.

During his previous attendance of the National Assembly sessions the security and control of the same premises remained with National Accountability Bureau(NAB) as by the time he (Shahbaz) was in the custody of NAB on physical remand and was facing investigation in a couple of cases.

Now as he was on judicial remand in jail so the security arrangements would be managed by the Punjab Prisons Department, which would coordinate with the federal government for the provision of adequate security and control of the said premises.

On political front, Shahbaz Sharif would chair a meeting of the party’s Parliamentary party ahead of the session which would start in the afternoon.

The Leader of Opposition would discuss the party affairs with the central party leaders and would also discuss the standoff with the government on formation of standing committees and the issue of Public Accounts Committee chairmanship.

He would also meet the leaders of other opposition parties and would devise some common strategy on the issue as so far the opposition parties are united on the point that in case the PAC chairmanship is not given to the Leader of Opposition then the opposition parties would boycott rest of the standing committees as well.

On the other hand, the PTI-led coalition government is adamant not to dole out the slot of PAC chairman to Leader of Opposition as the fellow was facing serious corruption charges and on the other hand he could not be made judge of the performance of the previous government led by his elder brother Nawaz Sharif.

Knowledgeable sources in the Parliament said that PPP had softened its stand on the issue of PAC chairmanship as some senior PPP leaders are of the view that the opposition should show some flexibility on the matter and would accept the PTI offer of giving the slot to some other MP from PML-N.

These sources said that the final decision on the matter would be made in a next couple of days following the meeting of Shahbaz Sharif with PPP central leaders on the issue.

In case of some settlement about the PAC slot, the formation of rest of the standing committees of the National Assembly would be finalised as well.