KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Friday directed the police to file a progress report about installation of biometric system at police stations till Oct 10 after a police report informed the court that this system had been installed at the nine police training colleges and some other offices across the province.

A two-judge bench of the SHC headed by Justice Mohammad Ali Mazhar was hearing a petition seeking directions for the provincial authorities to put the biometric system in every police station of the province as well as computerisation of FIRs, diaries, entries and all movement of police as per law.

In compliance with the Aug 30 order of the bench regarding biometric system at police stations, the AIG legal through a compliance report informed the bench that the report was called from the director information technology Sindh.

The report said that biometric system had been put in place at nine police training colleges of the province and some other units/offices, including central police office, Madadgar 15 call centre, command and control centre at Civic Centre, special security unit, security I & II and command and control centre at the CPO.

It was further contended in the report that in the first phase, Sindh police was purchasing 100 biometric devices and the biometric attendance system would be installed at Rapid Response Force (RRF) and Sindh Reserve Police (SRP) ranges, other police lines and police stations of provincial metropolis within five months.

In the second phase, the offices and police stations of the province will be equipped with centralised biometric attendance system after the successful implementation of 100 devices.

The police sought more time to implement the court order.

The bench directed the AIG to file a progress report regarding installation of biometric system at the police stations of Karachi till Oct 10.

The petition was filed last year and the provincial chief secretary, home secretary and the provincial police officer were impleaded as respondents.

Published in Dawn, September 28th, 2019