ISLAMABAD, Oct 26: The Senate is set for a noisy session as it discusses the bill enabling Gen Pervez Musharraf to hold offices of the president and the army chief beyond Dec 31 on Wednesday.

Sources told Dawn on Tuesday that after the question hour, the first item on Senate's agenda was the introduction of the bill on uniform by Law Minister Mohammad Wasi Zafar.

The opposition had been boycotting the National Assembly session after the lower house passed the bill on Oct 14.

The opposition parties had already announced that they would also protest if the bill was presented in the Senate. In this connection, a meeting of senators belonging to the People's Party Parliamentarians was held at the residence of Senator Mian Raza Rabbani on Tuesday evening. Sources said that the PPP had "decided to boycott" the session, but only after taking part in the debate.

Sources said that the opposition was likely to stage a walkout from the house after completion of the first reading on the bill.

Talking to Dawn, PPP Senator Farhatullah Khan Babar said that the protest strategy for the Senate session would be chalked out in a joint meeting of the parliamentary groups of the PPP, the PML-N and other nationalist parties in the Senate on Wednesday morning.

He said Senate Chairman Mohammadmian Soomro had also convened a meeting of the parliamentary leaders in his chamber before start of the session.

Replying to a question, Mr Babar said the opposition members would attend the meeting at the chairman's chamber just to know his views.

Earlier, in a statement, PPP Senator Akbar Khwaja warned the Senate chairman to "refrain from following into the footsteps of the National Assembly speaker in bulldozing the bill of two offices against all rules and norms of the parliament."