A Karachi sessions court on Wednesday rejected a plea seeking an FIR against the chief executive officer of a private bank, its branch managers, and other officials over the alleged commercial use of Safe City resources, including cameras, to trace defaulting vehicles. The court, however, ordered the Sindh police chief to ensure that police extend no assistance to the bank or any other financial institution in identifying, tracing, intercepting, or recovering defaulted vehicles, except as permitted by law and within the authority granted by the relevant statutory provisions. The application was filed by a citizen, Imran, under Sections 22-A and 22-B of the Code of Criminal Procedure, who claimed the bank was using Safe City cameras and information from the system for private and commercial purposes, particularly to monitor and trace vehicles allegedly belonging to defaulting customers. He argued that this affected the privacy and property rights of citizens, and that such surveillance and tracing can only be carried out by competent government agencies in accordance with law and for lawful purposes.
The court directed the DIG Information Technology and the Director General of the Safe City Project, Karachi, to ensure that surveillance, tracking, or location information is provided to a financial institution, its focal person, or any private individual only when authorised by law, lawful process, or a competent authority with jurisdiction. It further ruled that no private focal person nominated by a bank may be given independent or unrestricted access to police or Safe City systems, and that any coordination or access, where legally permissible, must remain subject to the authorisation, supervision, and safeguards set by the competent authority and applicable law. The judge also ordered police to submit a compliance report within 15 days, specifying the legal or statutory basis, the applicable rules, standard operating procedures, or other competent authorisation under which police and Safe City resources are being used to identify or trace defaulted vehicles, along with the instructions issued under the order.
The ruling draws a careful line rather than a blanket ban. In its written order, the court observed that a financial institution’s statutory right of recovery does not by itself make every method of locating, tracing, or taking possession of a vehicle lawful, while also noting that the mere fact that a private bank requested police assistance does not, on its own, make that assistance unlawful. The court clarified that its order does not stop police from taking lawful action where a cognizable offence is disclosed, where a vehicle is required for a lawful criminal investigation, or where seizure, recovery, or police assistance is otherwise authorised by law or by a competent court or authority. This leaves room for legitimate enforcement while closing off what the petitioner described as informal, unsupervised access to surveillance infrastructure for private debt recovery.
The case adds a legal dimension to the growing use of Safe City infrastructure in Karachi, where the Safe City Authority was established in 2022 and the network is reported to include around 1,200 cameras used for functions such as e-challan enforcement. As surveillance systems built with public funds take on more roles, the order signals that courts expect clear legal authority, written procedures, and supervision before that data reaches private parties. The compliance report due within 15 days will show whether police and the Safe City Authority can point to any formal rules or SOPs governing bank requests, and its contents are likely to shape how financial institutions approach vehicle recovery in Karachi going forward.
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