ISLAMABAD, March 12: The opposition in Senate on Sunday threatened to boycott the ongoing session of the upper house and decided to hold a joint parliamentary meeting on Tuesday to finalise its strategy.

Speaking at a news conference following a walkout from the house, the leader of the opposition in the Senate Mian Raza Rabbani, Prof Khurshid Ahmed and Maulana Gul Nasib held the changed attitude of Chairman Mohammedmian Soomro responsible for the exchange of harsh words between him and Dr Safdar Abbasi.

They announced that the opposition parties would hold joint meetings two hours before every session to chalk out a strategy to deal with day to day issues and confront the harsh attitude of the government.

They said that in the meeting on Tuesday they would consider continuing boycott of the session and abandoning the earlier understanding reached on taking up the sugar crisis, petroleum prices and other issues.

Mr Rabbani said the chairman had violated rules and parliamentary tradition of allowing the defeated candidate to speak first by giving the floor to Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz.

He condemned the way opposition lawmakers were stopped from speaking when they tried to use their right of reply to the prime minister’s speech.

The opposition leader asserted that the government wanted to cover up its misdeeds in Balochistan, the tribal areas, the NWFP, Sindh and Punjab.