Changing gears: New security software yet to be installed at major airports

The Integrated Border Management System will replace PISCES.

KARACHI:

Two years and over Rs200 million later, the Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) ambitious Rs421 million Integrated Border Management System (IBMS) is still in its trial period.

IBMS was developed to replace the Personal Identification, Secure Comparison and Evaluation System (PISCES), which has been in use at border crossings and airports since 2002 and was established with US assistance. The IBMS project was approved in 2008.

At the time, the FIA stated that IBMS would systematically replace PISCES across Pakistan 12 months after its launch.

IBMS, which was scheduled to be installed at the Karachi and Peshawar airports in June, has been in use at the Islamabad airport since late February.

FIA’s Additional Director General of Immigration Chaudhry Mohammad Manzoor told The Express Tribune, “As with any software, there are some small problems so we wanted to sort those out before replicating it elsewhere. I believe the latest version was installed on Monday.”

Manzoor said IBMS would be installed at the Peshawar airport this month. “Hopefully we can completely phase out PISCES within this year.”

Planned expenditure on IBMS for the 2011-2012 financial year is budgeted at Rs220.58 million. According to the planning commission’s most recent update on the status of the Public Sector Development Programme funds, Rs44.117 million had been released for the project as of August 27 and Rs200.8 million was released by June 2011.

In June, The Express Tribune reported that the government rejected US offers of upgrading PISCES and opted to develop and install IBMS instead. According to IBMS project documentation, “Since the software will be indigenously developed by FIA, the integrity of data will be secured as opposed to foreign software and database, whose source codes are not disclosed to Pakistanis. This will help in maintaining vital data to national security.”

IBMS has been developed by the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA). PISCES’ installation in 2002 generated rumours that the data would be available to the US.

In the past week, Pakistani media organisations have highlighted a US Embassy cable on the subject, which was released by WikiLeaks in May. It details an offer by the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in 2009 to provide Pakistan with the technology to access and analyse Advance Passenger Information (API) and Passenger Name Record (PNR) data on passengers flying to and from Pakistan in exchange for giving the DHS access to the data. Government officials wanted to check on a legal framework so that it would not be challenged in the Supreme Court. The cable quotes Interior Minister Rehman Malik as saying that it was imperative that Pakistan not be perceived by the public as “working for America” on this.

The cable also states that Malik “offered to share NADRA-generated information on Pakistani citizens, within the constraints imposed by privacy concerns”.

However, Malik has denied making the offer. The FIA and officials in the previous government deny that PISCES data was available to foreign governments.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 7^th,  2011.