The Interior Ministry is moving to establish the first centralized criminal database in Pakistan, aimed at consolidating scattered law enforcement records into a single national system. The initiative will see all criminal data compiled at the Command and Control Center of the National Police Bureau, pooling information currently held separately by provincial police departments and the Federal Investigation Agency.
Under the plan, the federal government will oversee the creation of a Federal Crime List that brings together records from provincial Inspectors General of Police and the FIA under one unified framework. The FCL is designed to capture a broad spectrum of criminal activity, ranging from proclaimed offenders and court absconders to individuals wanted under arrest warrants or detention orders, along with members and office bearers of banned organizations and those implicated in inter-provincial and cross border organized crime networks.
Beyond conventional offenses, the database will track individuals involved in drug and human trafficking, illegal migration, terrorist financing and money laundering, with cybercrime and financial fraud cases also logged alongside records of people linked to begging related offenses. The list will further include individuals flagged through Interpol red notices or other international alerts, with information on offenders and absconders shared across provinces to strengthen coordination among law enforcement agencies operating in different jurisdictions.
A key feature of the proposal is the introduction of a unique national criminal identification number for every individual entered into the Federal Crime List, with this number linked directly to the person’s national identity card wherever possible. This design allows authorities to cross reference criminal records with verified identity data, giving law enforcement agencies a more reliable way to track individuals across different provinces and jurisdictions rather than relying on separately maintained, disconnected databases as has historically been the case in Pakistan’s law enforcement infrastructure.
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