Crime probe: Punjab police seeks direct access to phone logs

SC directs secretary interior ministry to address the issue within 10 days.

LAHORE: An agreement has been reached to grant direct access of mobile phone data to the police. The interior ministry secretary has been directed to resolve the matter within 10 days.

The directives were issued in a meeting held under Supreme Court Justice Shakirullah Jan to review the progress of court cases, especially those involving terrorism and kidnappings for ransom.

The interior secretary was told to hold a meeting with all provincial home secretaries and police chiefs in this regard.

Punjab Police had been seeking direct access to mobile phone logs of people involved in criminal activities in general and kidnapping for ransom in particular, saying that the data was essential to quickly complete investigations, especially in sensitive cases.

Commenting on the pace of implementation of court decisions, the Additional Inspector General of Police (Investigation Branch), Punjab, Muhammad Azam Joiya, proposed that police needed direct access of phone call records, location and tracking information. Because the police do not have the authority to directly contact telecom companies to access such data, they can only get these details through the Inter Services Intelligence and the Intelligence Bureau and that too after a lengthy process which causes a delay in investigations of important cases.

Police officer’s proposal

A draft proposal submitted by Joiya called for upgrading detection techniques, including the use of cellular phones to trace criminals, adding that such data could also provide evidence against them.

The draft said that the security agencies’ reluctance to share data or testify in courts “weakened the data’s evidentiary value”.

Direct access to data, he said, would benefit police in detecting and preventing crimes and prosecuting criminals.

The police also called for training its personnel in tracking suspects by International Manufacturers Equipment Identification (IMEI) and International Manufacturers SIM Identification (IMSI) numbers.

The draft proposals also urged the interior ministry to issue a notification for directly accessing the mobile phone data.

The police also sought access to tracing records through IMEI and IMSI codes of cellular phones.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 23^rd, 2011.