Former Pakistani Prime Minister Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif will chair an opposition party meeting Wednesday to discuss the country's political situation, the official Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) reported Tuesday.

Sharif will chair the Central Working Committee Meeting of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) in Lahore, capital of the eastern Punjab province, the report said.

PML-N Secretary General Iqbal Zafar Jhagra said that the meeting would also discuss the option of a boycott of the parliamentary elections, though the party's candidates have filed their nomination papers for the Jan. 8 polls.

"The PML-N candidates have filed nomination papers for the National and provincial assemblies as done by other parties," he said.

However, the decision to participate or not to participate in the general election would be announced after the All Parties Democratic Movement meeting, he said.

The APDM, comprising around 30 opposition parties, is expected to hold a meeting in Lahore Thursday to decide on whether they will boycott the upcoming general elections.

The secretary general said, "PML-N will fully participate in the general elections if other parties do so. We will not give an empty field to others."

Sharif arrived in Lahore on Sunday from Saudi Arabia, ending his seven-year exile.

Sharif, twice elected prime minister of Pakistan, was jailed when General Pervez Musharraf staged a bloodless coup and seized power in 1999. He was tried by Anti-Terrorism Courts and sentenced to life imprisonment for hijacking. The authorities later agreed to commute his life sentence to exile for 10 years.

(Xinhua News Agency November 28, 2007)