Lahore, Pakistan, 20 October 2017-  A five-day training workshop ''Developing common standards in use of forensic evidence" was held between 16 and 20 October 2017 at the Punjab Forensic Science Agency (PFSA) in Lahore. Especially designed for judges, prosecutors and police officials from the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the training workshop was organized under the auspices of "Pakistan's Action to Counter Terrorism with a special reference to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa" project in collaboration with the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Judicial Academy (KPJA). 

The training participants included district and session judges, additional district and session judges, prosecutors, police officers and medicinal officers from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. They were taught through numerous case studies almost all the forensic science aspects including ballistics, crime scene management, forensic pathology and histology, DNA and biological information, fingerprints, forensic toxicology, questioned documents, narcotics, polygraph, computer/digital forensics, trace evidence and audiovisual analysis. The participants were also taken to the state-of-the-art facilities available at the PFSA and numerous experiments were performed for their better understanding. 

On the closing day of the training workshop, Mr. César Guedes, Representative,UNODC Pakistan,  expressed his gratitude to Dr. Muhammad Ashraf Tahir, Director General, PFSA, for his generous support and personal interest in the establishment of the state-of-the-art facility and termed PFSA as a splendid national asset and a model to be followed in the other provinces of Pakistan. Mr. Guedes elaborated upon the PACT project, which is a joint endeavor by the European Union, UNODC Country Office Pakistan and the National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA) of Pakistan. The project aims at improving the investigation process, using forensic science in terrorism cases, and strengthening the capacity of police and judiciary departments to effectively prosecute and adjudicate the cases. This training was part of the recommendations that were highlighted under the Case Analysis Exercise conducted earlier this year under the PACT project. 

Mr. Guedes distributed certificates to the participants upon their successful completion of the training workshop and urged them to apply the knowledge in their work. The participants praised UNODC's efforts and support to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Judicial Academy for organizing the high-quality training workshop where all the actors from the criminal justice system of the province were gathered to develop common understanding of forensic science.

This training was made possible by the generous support of the European Union.