The National Assembly Secretariat on Thursday, following approval from NA Speaker Asad Qaiser, issued the production order for Leader of the Opposition in NA Shahbaz Sharif, thus enabling the PML-N president to chair the first meeting of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

The production order has been issued for December 28, 31, and January 1. Meanwhile, the National Assembly Secretariat has also issued the agenda for the meetings.

According to the production order, being the PAC chairman, the presence of Shahbaz Sharif is mandatory for the meeting. Copies of the order have been issued to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) chairman, the NAB director general and other relevant authorities, including Kot Lakhpat jail's officials.

The first formal meeting of the Public Accounts Committee will be held on Friday at 3pm at the Parliament House.

The PAC wing will brief the committee during Friday's session while the Auditor General of Pakistan will brief the committee on Monday, whereas, the power ministry will brief the PAC on January 1.

On December 13, after a long impasse, the government had agreed to let Shahbaz Sharif chair the PAC — a longstanding demand by opposition benches in the NA.

The PML-N leaders had welcomed the decision and pointed out that PAC chairmanship would only count as one vote in the committee, in which government members would still be in majority. PML-N leader Ayaz Sadiq had assured the treasury benches, "When the audit paras of the PML-N government will come up before the committee, it will be headed by some other senior member."

Earlier, the PTI leaders had raised objections over the nomination of Shahbaz, arguing that the PML-N president was himself involved in corruption cases.

The NAB authorities had arrested former Punjab chief minister in October at its Lahore office in connection with the Rs14 billion Ashiana-i-Iqbal Housing Scheme case.