KARACHI: The first-ever DNA lab in Sindh was inaugurated on Thursday by Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah who said the laboratory would help the law enforcement agencies in emergencies and solve difficult cases.

“I am pleased to know that the forensic and molecular lab for DNA testing will issue reports in just 72 hours,” said Mr Shah after formally inaugurating the DNA lab at the CM House.

The forensic, toxicology and molecular biology lab for DNA test had been established at the Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences (LUMHS) Jamshoro with the financial assistance of the Sindh government, officials said.

Read: First DNA lab in Sindh opening today

The lab now required Rs100 million where five PhD experts, who had formally been trained in the United Kingdom, would supervise operations.

Officials said the lab would give report of DNA tests in up to 72 hours, much faster than the past when Sindh had to wait for up to a month or so to get such results from the labs in Islamabad and Lahore.

The lab would cost almost half of the amount charged by the labs in Islamabad and Lahore.

Officials said they had to pay Rs20,000 per test to the labs in Islamabad and Lahore but now the LUMHS lab would charge around Rs12,000 for a test.

Mr Shah said that until now samples and specimen for DNA testing were sent to Lahore. The transport of such delicate and valuable material to another province, he added, was risky, tedious and extremely expensive.

Moreover, he said, the issuance of results used to take a longer time, which created undue delays in solving criminal cases and provision of justice to people. He said every person had a unique DNA fingerprint and unlike conventional fingerprints, present only on the fingertips and could be altered by surgery, a DNA fingerprint was same forever.

He said Sindh had been lacking such facility for decades and referred to the incident of twin bombing in slain Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto’s homecoming rally in October 2007 in which bodies of dozens of the victims could not be identified because of unavailability of the facility. Many had to be buried unidentified, he added.

LUMHS Vice Chancellor Dr Noshad Shaikh said the DNA lab had latest equipment and technique which would help experts to prepare results of a test between 48 and 72 hours.

He said the health department notified and authorized the lab on March 31 and it would be the first-ever lab in the province, which would help the law enforcing agencies and the community for identification in the cases of unidentified bodies, sexual assault convicts, paternity disputes and missing persons.Ministers Nisar Ahmed Khuhro and Sikander Mendhro were also present on the occasion.

Officials DNA fingerprinting was rapidly becoming the primary method for identifying and distinguishing individuals.

Published in Dawn, April 24th, 2015

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