Pakistan’s first National Forensic Agency has formally begun operations, with the Ministry of Interior announcing on Friday that the institution is now fully functional. Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi visited the agency’s headquarters in Islamabad, expressing hope that the institution will assist in national security matters and in curtailing crime. During the visit, he directed the agency to establish offices in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, Kashmir, and Gilgit-Baltistan, and instructed that the services being provided should be widely publicised. The agency was created under the National Forensic Agency Act, 2024, which was passed into law last year, establishing it as an independent body with financial and administrative autonomy headquartered in Islamabad.
Naqvi toured various facilities during his visit, including the Research and Innovation Lab, Digital Forensics Lab, Narcotics Lab, FinTech Lab, and Questioned Documents Lab, and also inspected the DNA, firearms, serology, and explosives rooms. He commended the team for making the agency fully operational in a short time. Director General NFA Hasnaat Rasool briefed the minister that the first phase of the agency has been completed. In the field of digital forensics, facilities including deepfake forensics, computer and mobile forensics, audio-video analysis, network forensics, and drone forensics are now being provided. Over the past year, 1,500 digital forensic cases have been reported and processed.
Work on the second phase of the National Forensic Agency is set to begin soon, which will include the establishment of 25 specialised laboratories. The agency is designed to serve as a centralised forensic resource for law enforcement agencies across Pakistan, providing expert opinions to courts, tribunals, and investigative bodies on civil, criminal, corporate, and public matters. Its integration of digital and cyber forensics capabilities, including deepfake detection and drone forensics, reflects the growing complexity of the crimes that Pakistani law enforcement agencies are called upon to investigate in the modern era. The Directors General of the Anti-Narcotics Force, Federal Investigation Agency, and National Counter Terrorism Authority, as well as the Inspector General of Islamabad Police and other senior officials, were present during the ministerial visit.
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