LAHORE: The Punjab Police are likely to get latest equipment to locate wanted criminals and tap their phones.

Inspector General Khan Baig told Dawn the procedure to get legal permission to tap mobile phones of wanted persons was also being simplified. Currently, only the armed forces had the facility.

The Punjab Police complained lack of the facility was making them unable to tap phones to find out criminals’ location.

Normally, a request was made to the army, which according to the police was not responded to on time. “By the time we get information, the wanted person changes his location,” a senior official said.

The IG said Punjab Police would soon get equipment to tap mobile phones of wanted criminals. It already had the ability to determine a location through a phone, “but a mixture of both would make efforts more efficient”, he added.

He said eavesdropping on terrorists was allowed under the Investigation of Fair Trial Act 2013. And the provincial government was requesting Islamabad to simplify the procedure of obtaining warrants for surveillance of suspects or those involved in dangerous activities.

The Act was introduced to allow collection of evidence through surveillance of persons suspected to be involved in any scheduled offence or their mobile phones-based communication.

Under the law, surveillance was subject to a warrant that could be applied for by an officer appointed by the head of an intelligence agency or police. Evidence collected under this process was admissible in all legal proceedings.

But the lengthy process required a request to be submitted to the interior minister along with necessary material regarding the person to be put under surveillance with any scheduled offence.

In case of an approval, another application was required to be submitted before a high court judge designated by the chief justice for a decision in his chamber.

The law also provided for a review committee comprising defence, interior and law ministers to prevent its misuse that was punishable.

Sources said the procedure was difficult and impractical as the delay was “likely to deny any sudden or short-lived opportunity of gaining information”.

Punjab was recommending to the federal government a warrant be issued by an executive authority for 60 days on a request from a relevant agency and the decision should be open to review by a sessions judge in chambers on a complaint, or automatically after a fixed time to ascertain the need for its continuity.