ISLAMABAB: President Asif Ali Zardari will visit the parliament house on Wednesday to attend a farewell hosted by the opposition.

It will be the first farewell for an outgoing head of state at the parliament house.

“All MNAs and Senators belonging to opposition parties have been invited to the reception,” Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly Syed Khurshid Shah told Dawn on Sunday.

Asked if the leader of the house had also been invited, he said: “The prime minister has not been invited because it will be purely an opposition function.”

President Zardari will be the first elected president of the country to complete his five-year tenure on September 8.

A source in the National Assembly’s Secretariat said adequate security arrangements would be made at the parliament house during President Zardari’s visit.

Presidency’s spokesman Farhatullah Babar said President Zardari would attend another farewell on Thursday to be hosted by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif at the PM’s House.

“It will be a luncheon ceremony and is likely to be held on September 5,” said an official of the Prime Minister Office’s media wing.

Sources in the presidency said President Zardari also planned to host a reception for Prime Minister Sharif and his cabinet in a couple of days.

Members of the cabinets of former prime ministers Yousuf Raza Gilani and Raja Pervez Ashraf will also attend the reception.