Malakand forensic lab established by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, UNDP
PESHAWAR – Malakand Division will soon have a forensic science laboratory (FSL), thanks to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government and the UNDP. The FSL is scheduled to open in July 2015 and provide investigative services to the division's seven districts.
The UNDP plans to pay for 75% of the facility's construction, which is estimated to cost US $4.5m (Rs. 451 m), as well as the staff's salaries for the first year. The KP government is expected to pay the remaining cost of construction and salaries after the first year.
The half-acre facility, which began in December 2012, is about 75% complete. It will include two bomb-proof buildings and house 18 forensic scientists and 45 support staff, authorities say.
A KP deputy director will head the regional FSL, which will operate under the FSL Peshawar. The labs will work in co-ordination, officials told Central Asia Online
State of the art facility and training
The project is a component of the UNDP's efforts to strengthen the rule of law in Pakistan, including "violence-wracked Malakand," the UNDP's Mustafa Khan told Central Asia Online. "We have already imparted training to 40 police officers at the Forensic Science Agency in Punjab, who will act as master trainers in the future."
"Equipment and machines have been purchased, and some technical job vacancies have been advertised in the press," Khan said.
The FSL will have machines to analyse and examine chemicals, narcotics, questionable documents, individuals’ ages based on tissue samples, evidence of sexual assault, forensic photographs and gunshot wounds, he said.
By examining 50,000 specimens a year from Malakand, it will reduce the burden on the lab in Peshawar and eliminate the expense of shipping all those samples to the KP capital, police officer Anwar Khan in Mingora said.
Malakand received top priority in the race for new labs, but KP officials plan more of them because FSL Peshawar is over-burdened, they say.
"We are conducting a feasibility study to establish another FSL in Peshawar to reduce workload on Peshawar FSL, which presently has [a backlog of] 100,000 specimens," UNDP Country Director Marc-André Franche said, adding that Another FSL is planned for Hazara Division.
Forensic science leads to badly needed proof against suspects, said Prof. Hakim Khan Afridi, chairman of the Department of Toxicology and Forensic Science at the Khyber Medical College.
Crime surges and criminals gain confidence if courts lacking evidence are forced to acquit them, he said. But incontrovertible forensic evidence traps them into facing punishment, he added.
Dr. Muhammad Rafiq, one of the work's participants, is upbeat about the outcome.
"We desperately needed training because we receive at least 10 medico-legal cases every week where we need to make reports for courts," he said. "We send samples to Peshawar, which takes time."
Having a local lab wold represent a great leap forward in jailing criminals, he said.
Speedy justice in KP
The UNDP is carrying out other efforts to improve the rule of law in the tribal areas, such as training judges and lawyers.
"We have trained 25 female lawyers," Franche said.
The UNDP and the Peshawar High Court are reviewing laws as a long-term project while short- and medium-term programmes such as
mobile courts and
dispute resolution councils are also taking shape, he said.
"The people have suffered a great deal at the hands of Taliban militants who have implemented their idea of Islam,” Peshawar lawyer Shah Nawaz Khan told Central Asia Online. "The Taliban publicly 'executed' their opponents and flogged women and men in the name of their so-called Sharia Law."
"We won't make any progress in other sectors, including education and health, unless we have a better system for the rule of law," he said.
Malakand forensic lab established by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, UNDP - Central Asia Online