September 28, 2007	Friday	Ramazan 15, 1428

LAHORE, Sept 27: The Punjab government is poised to convene a session of the provincial assembly on Oct 3 to facilitate the presidential election and more importantly to have adopted several pending bills about its various initiatives.

It had earlier planned to convene the session on Sept 3, but could not materialise it because of the confusion on political front.

“We have prepared the agenda and proposed Oct 3 as the day for commencement of the session and have sent the file to the chief minister for approval,” officials told Dawn here on Thursday. After approval from the chief minister, they said, the file would be sent to the governor for announcement of the session.

Officials said besides ensuring the presence of its members in Lahore on the presidential election day on Oct 6, the government would try its utmost to have its around nine pending bills mostly covering its much-publicised initiatives adopted.

The pending bills included the Disposal of Land by Development Authorities Amendment Bill, the Punjab Wildlife Amendment Bill, the Punjab Regulation and Control of Loudspeakers Bill, the Punjab Judicial Academy Bill, the Punjab Forensic Science Agency Bill, the Punjab Defenders Service Bill, the Prohibition of Kite-Flying Bill and the Motorvehicle Ordinance Amendment Bill.

In addition, the government also intends to introduce the new General Provident Fund Bill.

The adoption of most pending bills was necessary during the proposed session which could be the last one of the incumbent assembly. If this was not done, major policies of the government could be derailed, feared the officials.

“We will try our best to have these passed. Failure to do so will mean that the issues like the establishment of the judicial academy, forensic science agency and the defenders service have been left to the next government,” the officials said.

Further, they said, the adoption of the motorvehicle amendment bill was necessary for running the newly-established traffic warden service because besides other important things, the law specified fines on different traffic violations.

Meanwhile, the officials said, the assembly had already met for only 34 days during the current parliamentary year ending on Oct 22 as against the constitutional requirement of 70 days. The assembly was also going to complete its full term of five years by next month and it could not cover the remaining 36 days during this period even if its session continued to be held during this period.

But the most important thing for the government was to hold a session even for a brief period to have its important pending bills adopted, they reiterated.