While street crimes continue to rise in Karachi, investigations are being hindered by a fault in forensic machinery which has not been fixed despite a lapse of four months.

Integrated Ballistic Identification System is used by the police to analyse bullet shells found on crime sites. The machine helps identify the weapon used in the crime and shows if it has been used before.

However, with the machine being out of order, the investigation of many major crimes including the murder of Maulana Ziauddin has not progressed any further.

Police had found shells from a 9mm pisotol from the murder site but they could not be analysed by the machine. Instead they were analysed without the machine which did not lead to any matches.

Caretaker Chief Minister Maqbool Baqar took notice of the issue 15 days ago. However, no progress has been made so far.