ISLAMABAD, Sept 10: The national Automated Fingerprints Identification System (AFIS) will be linked with all provincial headquarters and 52 districts by December 2005 to fight terrorism and other organized crimes, says an official report.
The one-year performance report of the government (from 2004 to August 2005), a copy of which was also made available to Dawn, said that a number of new initiatives were undertaken to strengthen the capacity of law-enforcement agencies, including providing security to life and property, maintaining law and order, improving access to justice and further tightening the entry of illegal entrants.
“The government is encouraging agencies to make extensive use of technology and modern equipment to fight crime,” the report said, adding that a number of steps had been taken to improve the country’s law and order situation, which also included creation of a database where data received from various agencies with regard to terrorism, law and order and issues of internal security would be collected and centrally stored.
An important institutional reform for improving the administration of criminal justice is the creation of an independent prosecution service within each province. “In addition, the government is devoting considerable efforts to secure its borders from illegal entrants.”
On investment and infrastructure, the report said that the pace of current economic development cannot be sustained without a significant expansion in the country’s infrastructure such as water storage, power generation, roads, railways, ports, airports and telecommunications.
During the one-year period, economic assistance to the tune of $2.9 billion from various multilateral and bilateral development partners was acquired. Pakistan has succeeded in attracting $1.5billion Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) as against $950 million a year ago, showing an increase of about 60 per cent.
The report also claimed that wide-ranging governance reforms had been initiated to ensure that government departments and organizations become more efficient and responsive to the people. “One of the main concerns of the government’s development effort is to ensure distribution of growth amongst the broadest set of people. Such efforts will only succeed when this objective is approached by attacking the causes that restrict some people from fully participating in the growth process.”
The report said that sustainable transfer of growth benefits requires significant expenditure on investments in education, health, population welfare, gender balance, protection of the environment and access to credit. The government is working to address the distribution issue through a comprehensive strategy that addresses all these areas.
During the year, expenditure for reducing poverty was increased from Rs256 billion to Rs297 billion reflecting an increase of 14 per cent.
