CM approves establishment of Sindh Safe City Authority, Forensic Commission

KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has approved a proposal to establish Sindh Safe City Authority and Provincial Forensic Commission so that both the projects presently hanging in balance could be completed in true letter and spirit.

He took this decision on Thursday while presiding over a high-level meeting here at CM House to discuss and decide the implementation of the two projects. The Safe City project Forensic Lab is facing snags from its initial stage. The meeting was attended by Chief Secretary Mumtaz Shah, Minister IT Taimore Talpur, Chairperson P&D Nahid Shah, IG Sindh Dr Kaleem Imam, PSCM Sajid Jamal Abro, Home Secretary Qazi Kabir, Commissioner Karachi Iftikhar Shahlwani, Adl IG Karachi Ghulam Nabi Memon, DIGs and other experts and officers.

IG Police Dr Kaleem Imam briefing the chief minister said that Feasibility Study for Sindh Safe City Project had been approved by the government for Rs10 million and the preparation of PC-I was in progress. He added that the Safe City Project was a huge one and would be taken up after completion of its feasibility.

The chief minister was told that there were 25000 CCTV cameras installed at different locations in the city, which were being monitored through the Command and Control Center established at IG Office.

It was pointed out that a scheme of Rs200 million was launched to install 10,000 CCTV cameras at different locations in the city and its other divisional headquarters. The government has allocated Rs10 million for the current financial year.

The chief minister said that it was a huge project, therefore, Sindh Safe City Authority should be established first so that it could implement various components of the project, including CCTV installation through its expertise. He added that at present, the project was being handled by IT department of the provincial government and at IT wing of the police department. “Neither it is the expertise of the home department nor any other one, therefore, an independent authority with a DG should be established first,” he said.

Chief Secretary Mumtaz Shah said that draft of Safe City Authority was presented in the cabinet which constituted its committee under Minister Energy Imtiaz Shaikh to review the draft law. The committee has suggested some changes in the law which would be presented in the next cabinet meeting for approval. The chief minister directed Home Secretary Qazi Kabir to finalise and firm up the recommendations made by the cabinet committee and get them approved from the cabinet for sending it to assembly.

Sindh Forensic Commission: The Home Secretary, Kazi Kabir briefing the chief minister said that 30 acres of land had been acquired for establishment of Forensic Science Lab in Deh Jorejio, taluka Bin Qasim, malir Karachi. The project would be completed in three years.

The main services to be offered by Forensic Lab include audiovisual analysis; computer forensics, crime scene and death scene investigation, DNA and serology, forensic photography, narcotics, toxicology, trace chemistry, polygraph, firearms and tool masks, latent fingerprints; pathology; questioned documents and explosive lab.

The IG police said that the Sindh police had already established forensic facilities in Karachi, Hyderabad and Larkana. In these labs, firearms unit; questioned documents unit, fingerprints unit; vehicle examination unit; digital forensic unit; specialized crime scene units and one mobile forensic units were operational.

At present, DNA serology facility in Sindh is available at Liaquat University Jamshoro. It was established in 2015. During the period of the last four years, the lab analyzed 1000 cases, of them 60 per cent were received from Karachi and 33 per cent from other districts of Sindh and also from Balochistan.

In the meeting, it was pointed out that another 30 acres of land was required for Forensic Academy and yet another 30 acres for hostel and residential colony. Last year, the provincial government had released Rs220 million and were deposited in the account of the project.

The chief minister said that this project of Forensic Lab had also become a major project. Therefore, Sindh Forensic Commission may be constituted so that it could launch and complete the project with the required expertise.