LAHORE, Aug 29: An inordinate delay in amending the rules for the Identification of Prisoners Act 1920 is in turn delaying the development of a DNA database of convicted criminals, suspects and jail inmates by the Punjab University’s Centre of Excellence in Molecular Biology.

The centre’s DNA laboratory has been notified as the provincial government’s laboratory for conducting DNA tests for effective crime-scene investigation. The CEMB director has been notified as the assistant chemical examiner.

This was stated by Centre’s associate professor Dr Zahoor Ahmad while talking to Dawn after delivering a lecture on the use of “DNA in crime investigation” organized by the Higher Education Commission at its regional centre here the other day. Some 40 DSPs and police inspectors from Lahore, Sheikhupura, Gujranwala, Narowal, Sialkot, Kasur, Okara, Faisalabad, Multan, Rawalpindi and Sargodha attended the lecture.

Dr Ahmad said the case to amend the rules of Identification of Prisoners Act was being processed by Punjab home and jail departments. The amendment to the rules would make each convicted offender, suspect and detenu bound to give his blood sample for DNA testing as well as his or her short life history. The proforma already prepared by the CEMB would also require a photograph of each accused.

After an amendment to the rules, Dr Ahmad said, the interior ministry would ask other provinces to amend the rules to make room for developing a DNA database of criminals all over the country.

At present, he said, there were about 80,000 jail inmates in Pakistan, including 35,000 in the Punjab alone. He said the CEMB would not conduct blood-sampling or collect history of the convicts already on death row.

He said the interior ministry had also established a National Forensic Science Agency to set up DNA testing laboratories in the central and provincial capitals.

Dr Ahmad said the CEMB had also proposed to the interior ministry that there must be one crime scene investigation unit at the district level. He said that these units should be fully equipped to collect and preserve biological evidence from the crime scene.

He said the centre had also proposed to the federal government to allow random blood DNA sampling of 400 to 500 unrelated people of different ethnic groups in the country. This sampling would provide representative population-base data for DNA analysis, he said.

Answering a question, he said the CEMB DNA lab had so far conducted around 50 tests of biological samples collected from various crime scenes. He said the DNA tests had been conducted in the cases of Daniel Pearl, Yousaf Ramzi and the Czech Republic citizen whose body had recently been recovered from Northern Areas after his disappearance about a year ago. The centre had also conducted a DNA test on stains on his clothes about a year ago.

He said the centre was also contacted for the DNA testing of biological material found at the scene of massacre in a mosque in Quetta. He, however, said no sample had so far been received by the centre.

Answering another question, he said the CEMB also used to do private cases for DNA testing but had now stopped the practice on the instructions of the provincial home department. “While determining the parentage of a child, we faced with a lot of problems,” he said.

Dr Ahmad said the CEMB planned to organize four three-day extensive courses in crime scene management of biological evidence for investigation officers and crime scene investigation officers in the next four months. Similarly, he said, three similar courses would be organized for the judiciary and attorneys to create awareness about biological evidence and DNA test reports.

Earlier, delivering his lecture — organized as part of an HEC series, Dr Ahmad said that every person in the world possessed a unique DNA that he acquired half from his mother and half from his father. Saying that there were 16 points in a DNA for analysis, he added that studies suggested that one person’s duplicate DNA could be found only in a three trillion population.

Dr Ahmad said the DNA typing of biological material had become one of the most powerful tools for identification in forensic medicine and criminal investigation. He said that different types of biological evidence could be used effectively to associate or exclude an individual from a crime. The direct transfer of DNA from one individual to another individual or to an object could be used to link a suspect to a crime scene.

He said blood and blood stains, semen and semen stains, bones, teeth, hair with root, saliva with nucleated cells, urine, faeces and debris from finger nails could be used as evidence through PCR-based DNA typing.

Giving suggestions about the collection of biological evidence, Dr Ahmad said the officer arriving first at a crime scene must avoid contaminating the area where DNA might be present and not touch it with bare hands, sneeze or cough over the evidence. He said the officer should use clean latex gloves and change them while handling different items. He said that a sample of evidence must be carefully chosen to prevent needless redundancy in a case. He said blood stains should be transferred from immovable surfaces with sterile cotton swabs and distilled water.

After evidence collection, he said, ignorance of proper handling procedures during storage and transport of DNA from the crime scene to the lab could result in making a specimen unfit for analysis. He suggested that each item of evidence must be packaged separately and blood, semen and other types of stains must be thoroughly air dried prior to sealing the package. He said samples should be packed in paper bags or envelopes instead of plastic bags.

Inside the lab, he said DNA samples could either be stored in a refrigerator at 4 degrees Celsius or in a freezer at -20 degrees and for a longer period of time at -70 degrees Celsius.

Answering participants questions, Dr Ahmad said that a DNA test cost Rs10,000.