Police focal persons to liaise with cellphone firms

Karachi
The Sindh police department has decided to appoint focal persons to all its units to remove bottlenecks for a smooth flow of information to ensure timely action against terrorists and other criminals.
The department will finalise a list of focal persons and communicate it to the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority within 24 hours.
The decision was taken at a coordination meeting between Inspector General of Police Ghulam Hyder Jamali and PTA Director Ashfaq Musavi and cellular service providers at the Central Police Office on Tuesday.
The DIG Headquarters Sindh, the additional IGs of the Special Branch, Karachi, and the Counter Terrorism Department, the DIGs of South and the CTD; the AIGs of operations, logistics and legal and administration attended.
The group of senior representatives of cellular companies, including Mobilink, Ufone, Telenor, Warid, Zong, were headed by the PTA director.
Jamali, who chaired the meeting, directed the DIG Headquarters Sindh to do the needful to implement the decision.
The meeting discussed ways to timely acquire information on geo-fencing, CDR and data collection.
It decided that the cellular companies would ensure timely communication of data on GSM location to police as and when required. "It is imperative to have immediate GSM location of a high-value moving target to ensure timely police action,” observed CTD DIG.
The meeting decided to take up the issue of information on geo-fencing with the interior ministry immediately to sort out any possible ambiguity.
Jamali directed the DIG Headquarters to draft a letter for the interior ministry on justified and logical grounds. He also asked the PTA to approach the interior ministry in light of the decisions taken at the meeting.