LAHORE, March 23: Parliamentary committees of the PML-N and the opposition (PPP and PML-Q) will meet here on Sunday at the Punjab Assembly to discuss the four names for the caretaker chief minister’s slot.

The PPP on Saturday replaced one of its two nominees, a former bureaucrat, Hafeez Akhtar Randhawa, with journalist Najam Sethi for the Punjab CM slot. The party’s other nominee is former Lahore High Court chief justice Zahid Husain.

Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif had proposed the names of Justice Amer Raza Khan (retired) and former bureaucrat Khawaja Zaheer for the slot.

The chief minister had rejected the name of Mr Husain while former opposition leader in the Punjab Assembly Raja Riaz did not agree to Shahbaz Sharif’s nominees.

Shaukat Basra, former deputy parliamentary leader in the Punjab Assembly, told Dawn the parliamentary committees of the PML-N and the PPP and the PML-Q would meet on Sunday to discuss the names of the four nominees for the slot.

“We are not optimistic about reaching a consensus, keeping in view the inflexible attitude of PML-N in the centre,” Mr Basra said.

The PML-N committee comprises Rana Sanaullah, Mujtaba Shujaur Rehman and Iqbal Channar and the PPP-PML-Q’s body consists of Maj Zulifqar Gondal (retired), Shaukat Basra and Chaudhry Zaheeruddin.