LAHORE, Nov 9: Police have yet to receive positive response from the interior ministry for the provision of facilities like ‘Call Detail Data’ and ‘Location of Cell Phone’ under the Cell Phone Tracking System despite many high-level meetings and reminders to the federal government during the last two years, Dawn has learnt.

And the consequent dependence on agencies like the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and the Intelligence Bureau (IB) for obtaining these all-important facilities to trace the crimes of heinous nature has adversely affected the investigation of those cases in which cell phones were frequently used.

The latest meeting of the provincial police higher-ups to impress upon the interior ministry the need for provision of the system was held at the Central Police Office a month ago amid concerns over the ministry’s cold response, a source at the CPO told Dawn.

The officials, he said, held the opinion that keeping in view the latest crime trends and expanding role of the police to deal with the general public, the police needed the direct and timely access to the cell phone data about the numbers used by the criminals and their location with the help of telecom regulators.

“We are totally dependent on the ISI and the IB for the purpose but these agencies, in most cases, are unable to extend cooperation for their own limitations,” a city police official said.

He said the IGs of four provinces at a number of meetings with the interior ministry officials had conveyed their concerns and requested for the facility, but no step had been taken so far by the federal government.

“There is a perception that the intelligence agencies may not want to lose their surveillance authority and fear that the system, if given to the police, will be misused. These agencies are the main hurdle in the project,” he said.

He said the cell phone tracking system consists of call detail data, location of cell phone and recording, but the police were seeking access to the first two facilities through which criminals could be timely located and arrested. The police were not against the availability of the system to the agencies, but they wanted to have direct access to the data of telecom companies to deal with the cases which didn’t fall in the purview of the agencies, he said.

The official said the police could timely trace kidnap for ransom and crime against property cases if the two facilities were provided to them. Currently, he said, some police officers who had private sources in six telecom companies operating in the country were able to get direct information through emails but in most cases, help was either sought from the ISI and the IB or the junior police officers requested their seniors to exercise their influence to seek agencies’ cooperation.

A police official, who had served the investigation wing of the city police, commented that the agencies cooperated in those cases in which influential people were targets. Residents of posh localities like Defence, Cantonment and Gulberg were the main beneficiaries of the cell phone tracking system for their strong connections with the law-enforcement agencies, he said.

In two of the recent cases, intelligence agencies provided information to the police and facilitated prompt action against the culprits. Lt-Col Riaz Azeem of Pakistan Army was shot dead by two robbers in Gulberg in May 2008 and later the police with the timely help of agencies caught the criminals, identified as Imran Khan and Azeem. Imran was later killed in a police encounter while Azeem is in jail nowadays.

In the other incident, two robbers shot at DIG Chaudhry Tassaduq Hussain, who is currently serving in Crimes Investigation Department, near Liberty Market. The police arrested the robbers with the help of the cell phone tracking system.

The police had also managed to arrest four robbers with the help of the facility extended by agencies, who had looted cash, jewellery, cell phones and other valuables worth Rs1.5 million from the residence of Gen Mohsin (retired) in DHA.

Another police official told Dawn that the sale of unregistered SIMs (subscriber identity module) by the franchisers of six telecom regulators to the people was aggravating the problem as criminals had direct access to the number of such SIMs and were not caught easily.

He alleged that the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority was not taking concrete measures against the telecom regulators and those issuing unregistered connections.

According to official statistics released by the city police, the police have registered 73 cases against individuals and franchisers and arrested 76 people for issuing and using unregistered SIMs during the first nine months of 2008. As many as 64 cases have been registered under the Pakistan Telecommunication Act 1996 while rest of the cases was registered under 29-Telegrah Act and others.

SSP (Operations) Chaudhry Shafiq Ahmad told Dawn that action against franchisers and individuals was in progress as the complaints about use of unregistered SIMs were increasing with every passing day. He said the PTA had not so far acted positively on the number of letters written to them for action against those who issued unregistered SIMs.

The PTA spokesman was not available for a comment.