LAHORE, Jan 5: The Punjab Assembly is expected to pass the Rawalpindi Defence Housing Authority (DHA) Bill at a speed unheard of in its history on Monday.

The bill is aimed at giving all legal powers to the authority to independently handle affairs of the colony already established in Rawalpindi.

Sources told Dawn on Saturday that the bill was introduced in the Punjab Assembly on Thursday and was immediately referred to the standing committee concerned. The committee met before the start of the session on Friday morning, prepared its positive report and later submitted it to the House.

The bill will be adopted on Monday as it was on top of the list of three others laws.

“Yes. The law is important for the government and no one will oppose it,” said a source. He said the haste shown in fulfilling the procedural requirements was unprecedented.

Two important bills, one Punjab Local Government Bill 2012 containing the new local government system in the province, and another Private Education Commission Bill 2012 which aims at regulating the unbridled private-sector education system, are pending with the standing committees of the Punjab Assembly for the last many months.

And, according to sources, there were no chances of their passage by the present assembly as it might meet on Monday or Tuesday for the last time.

The session is likely to be prorogued on Monday or Tuesday and it might be the last of the present assembly.

“The assembly has met only for 58 days. It is required to meet for at least 100 days in a parliamentary year which ends on April 8. But it looks no one is interested in meeting the requirement as everything now is geared towards fresh elections,” a source said.