PESHAWAR, Aug 2: The Federal Investigation Agency is awaiting the interior ministry’s permission to install the Personal Identification, Secure Comparison and Evaluation System (PISCES) at the Torkham checkpoint along the border with Afghanistan, officials said.

A senior official said that the FIA had received video cameras, computers and other equipment, but the approval was still being awaited.

He said: “FIA is ready to install state-of-the-art monitoring system at the western border town,” adding that Torkham would be the country’s first major border crossing point where such facilities would be installed.

The new system would monitor movement of immigrants and human trafficking across the border. Under the proposed plan, the FIA would also set up such a monitoring system at Ghulam Khan (North Waziristan Agency) and Chaman (Balochistan).

After the US-led offensive in Afghanistan, the interior ministry had approved a project to set up PISCES counters at 14 entry and exit points along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. FIA had already installed PISCES at international airports, including Peshawar, Karachi and Islamabad.

Sources said that the US administration had also provided such gadgets to the Afghan transitional government which would be installed on Afghanistan side of the Torkham border crossing. But prevailing uncertainties had delayed the installation of PISCES on the Afghan side, officials said.