PARLIAMENT resumed business on Friday after a two-month recess. The house starts off with a daunting task to handle 48 bills lined up for the third session that caps 2012. Among the bills are the draft bills on extradition procedures and a private members bill regulating conduct of demonstrations and public rallies. “28 of these bills are urgent. They are intended to create institutions and we have a tight schedule,” Speaker Rose Mukantabana told the house at its first sitting on Friday. Also on the list of bills is one which the government intends to create a National Council on Science and Technology among many other institutions.Others include the Information Communications Technology Bill which has been pending for the last ten months. The committee on social affairs is also considering a draft on the Pensions Act that seeks to raise the retirement age from 55 to 60 years.Addressing a news briefing at the Parliamentary Buildings before breaking for recess, Mukantabana said the number of bills coming to parliament was increasing. She attributed the development to the ongoing harmonisation of laws across the East African Community (EAC), among other things.
