Security threats: Vehicles entering high court to be given biometric identification

Judges, lawyers who come to courts will have to register their cars.

KARACHI:

The Sindh High Court will now have a biometric system to identify all the vehicles that enter the court to prevent any terrorist attacks.

This was decided on Friday when the high court chief justice, Mushir Alam, met police and Rangers officials to devise a security plan for judges in the city. After the attack on Justice Maqbool Baqar’s convoy that killed nine people, the security of the judges and other court employees has driven the officials to beef up security.



DIG South Dr Ameer Shaikh and Rangers deputy director-general Brigadier Basit put up various suggestions during Friday’s meeting but Justice Alam was not satisfied with the arrangements currently in place for the judges or the court building, an official told The Express Tribune. He insisted that more security is needed around the high court building and the city courts.

According to the official who was privy to the meeting, the law enforcers suggested installing jammers in the high court’s building as well as the vehicles carrying the judges.



They also suggested installing the biometric identification system through which the vehicles of high court officials and lawyers would be registered along with their names. Only those who clear the thumb-impression scan would be allowed to enter.

Sources said that the high court administration expressed its interest in the proposal to introduce the biometric identification system. The SHC information technology department has been tasked to work out modalities to launch such a project as soon as possible. The law enforcers also suggested that the areas around the high court’s building should be declared as no parking zones, raise the height of the boundary walls and ensure surveillance through close-circuit cameras.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 6^th, 2013.