KARACHI: The Sindh police want the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) to set up its permanent facilities at all entry/exit points across the province to check the identity of any suspicious person coming to Sindh, particularly Karachi, from the upcountry, it emerged on Sunday.

A senior official confirmed to Dawn that a proposal to this effect had been forwarded to the provincial authorities to take up the request with Nadra, which is a federal institution.

“During recent meetings of law enforcement agencies it emerged that there is no mechanism to keep details of people moving from one province to another,” said a senior police officer. “The issue was also raised in discussions with senior officials of Sindh Rangers, which is leading the targeted operation in Karachi for more than six months. There is a consensus on this point that the identity verification of individuals is not possible without the assistance of the agency concerned.”

When asked about the possible inconvenience to hundreds of thousands of motorists and passengers moving from and to the province due to the identity authentication process, he said that the move would only help the police to seek details of any individual during random checking.

“There is no plan to check each and every individual. It’s not even humanly possible as there are hundreds of vehicles and people coming into the province and moving out. The proposal only argues that there should be a facility to check identity or family record of any individual being suspected by the law-enforcers,” added the official.

The police move came after the Rangers director general had told the media that he wanted round-the-clock surveillance of three key points — National Highway, Superhighway and Hub.

The official also referred to the arrival of ‘militants’ mainly to Karachi in the garb of innocent residents when a military operation was launched in Swat.

They said the non-existence of any such facility allowed the militants to move into Sindh with Karachi remained their favourite destination.

“This doesn’t mean that the Sindh security administration wants to stop the people entering the province but it’s an attempt to have such an arrangement at a right place which may benefit in many ways,” said the official. “Most recently the point was raised by a top police official during a meeting with the Sindh chief minister and the proposal received a positive response. Sooner or later, it’s going to happen I believe.”

He said the proposal was likely to be taken up by the Sindh government with the federal institution concerned. However, the official was sure that the proposal would consume enough time to get materialised.

“I don’t think that such practice being followed by any other province,” he said. “So it would be first of its kind and you better know, if approved, it would take time to be in place. It would obviously require funds and coordinated efforts from all the institutions concerned but it would definitely help in achieving desired results.”