KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister (CM) Syed Murad Ali Shah on Friday approved a proposal to establish Sindh Safe City Authority and provincial forensic commission so that both the projects could be completed in true letter and spirit.

Presiding over a high-level meeting at the CM House, Murad Ali Shah said that it was a big project, therefore Sindh Safe City Authority should be established first so that various components of the project could be implemented including CCTV cameras installation through its expertise, according to a statement.

He added that at present the project was being handled by IT department of the provincial government and the IT wing of the police department.

Inspector General of Police (IGP) Sindh Dr. Syed Kaleem Imam briefing the chief minister said that Feasibility Study of Sindh Safe City Project had been approved by the government for Rs. 10 million and the preparation of PC-I was in progress. He added that the safe city project was a big 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 and were being monitored through command and control center established at the Inspector General Office. It was pointed out that a scheme of Rs. 200 million was launched to install 10,000 CCTV cameras at different locations in the city and in other divisional headquarters of the city. The government had allocated Rs. 10 million for the current financial year. Sindh Chief Secretary Syed Mumtaz Ali 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 had 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: Sindh Home Secretary, Kazi Kabir briefing the chief minister said that 30 acres of land have 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 audio visual analysis; computer forensic, crime scene and death scene investigation, DNA and serology, forensic photography, narcotics, toxicology, trace chemistry, polygraph, fire arms and tool masks, latent finger prints; pathology; questioned documents and explosive lab.

The IGP Sindh 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 unit were operational.

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

In the meeting it was pointed that another 30 acres of land was required for Forensic Academy and yet another 30 acres for hostel, residential colony. Last year the provincial government had released Rs. 220 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 required expertise.

Chief Minister Sindh Syed Murad Ali Shah directed the Chief Secretary to work out all the requirements for establishment of Forensic Commission and report in the next cabinet meeting. The meeting was attended by Minister Information Technology Taimore Talpur, Chairperson P&D Nahid Shah, Commissioner Karachi Iftikhar Shahlwani, Additional IGP- Karachi Ghulam Nabi Memon, Deputy IGPs and other concerned experts and officers.