PESHAWAR: The first ever official forensic DNA profiling laboratory in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, set up at Khyber Medical College, could not become operational as authorities didn’t notify it, sources said.

They said that health department sent a letter to home and tribal affairs department in February, asking it to notify the forensic laboratory so that it could start operations but the response was still awaited.

They said that the laboratory was established at KMC’s department of toxicology and forensic medicines in 2015. “It has conducted successful trials but it can’t perform official work as it has not been notified,” they added.

Response of home and tribal affairs dept awaited to make the lab functional

Sources said that health department needed notification of home and tribal affairs department to be able to start conducting official investigations at the laboratory sent by police or on the directives of court.

“There is no authenticity of the laboratory because it hasn’t been notified by the government and as a result police and other law enforcement agencies continue to send cases to Forensic Science Agency Laboratory, Lahore and Islamabad where they pay Rs15, 000 to Rs20, 000 per test,” they said.

Officials at health department said that they had got two qualified molecular biologists and other relevant staff apart from high-tech machines required for the DNA profiling, but the laboratory was waiting for the government’s notification to start function.

They said that after notification by home and tribal affairs department, the laboratory would get official recognition and court and police would send material for tests in cases relating to determination maternal and paternal disputes, sexual assaults, bomb blasts, murder, robbery and suicide attacks. “At present it cannot do anything with regard to investigation in crime detection,” said officials.

Generally, a DNA lab is notified by the government when it has qualified staff, machines and desired infrastructure to perform state-of-the-art investigations.

In fact, the lab was ready to become operational two years ago but faced delay owing to non-appointment of molecular biologists.

In 2013, government started work to establish the laboratory to be able to identify the suicide bombers and help the law enforcement agencies to trace those people, who were involved in acts of terrorism. The government allocated Rs450 million for the purpose.

Sources said that interviews for appointment of molecular biologists were cancelled twice that caused initial delay but then everything was in place and only a notification was required to start work.

They said that health department also planned to appoint three more microbiologists in near future to cope with workload from the whole province. Sources said that currently cases were being sent to Lahore and Islamabad which took much longer to make the results available for police and courts. “Its operations will not only pave the way for quick disposal of cases but police will also get free services,” they said.

Published in Dawn, May 26th, 2017