ISLAMABAD: Opposition senators have decided to lodge a strong protest against the continued absence of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif from the Senate if he does not turn up on Monday, which is expected to be the last day of its current session.

According to sources, the opposition members, who have been raising the issue almost in every sitting through walkouts and points of order during the past two months, believe that the time has come for an unprecedented protest to force the premier to come to the house.

`We will definitely not allow the prime minister to keep away and will register our strong and noisy protest before walking out of the house on Monday,` Senator Zahid Khan of the Awami National Party (ANP) said.He expressed the hope that he and his colleagues would be able to bring the prime minister to the house in the next session, scheduled to be held from Feb 24 to March 11.

He said the prime minister had been ignoring the house which represented the federation and now the time had come to take some `strict measures`.

The ANP leader said the senators wanted the prime minister to make his position clear on a claim made by Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chairman Imran Khan regarding the capability of the armed forces to curb terrorism. `We will not accept a response from any other person or minister, he added.

The PPP`s parliamentary leader in the house, Raza Rabbani, said: `We have staged token walkouts from the house many times in the past, but the government has been unmovedand now we have no choice but to look for some other options.

He said the PPP would convene a joint meeting of the parliamentary groups of all the opposition parties to discuss a strategy for the next session.

Senator Rabbani said that despite repeated demands, the government was not ready even to give a firm commitment regarding the prime minister`s participation in the Senate proceedings.

It was after more than six months marred by frequent protests and walkouts by the opposition parties that the prime minister finally appeared in the National Assembly on Jan 29 and announced formation of a four-member committee to hold peace talks with the Taliban.

Senator Rabbani said that after the prime minister`s much-awaited appearance in his parent house,there was hope that he would fulfill his `constitutional obligation` and appear before the Senate as required under the Constitution following the adoption of the 18th Amendment.

The prime minister has never attended a Senate session since assuming the office in June last year.

During the previous session, Leader of the House Raja Zafarul Haq had agreed to the opposition`s viewpoint that the prime minister should come to the house and said that he would take up the matter with Mr Sharif.

Senator Tahir Hussain Mashhadi of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement had said that he had suggested an amendment to the Senate Rules two years ago to make it mandatory for the prime minister to attend at least one sitting of the house if a session continued for more than two weeks.