Aggrieved families of the victims of the PIA plane crash want DNA samples of their loved ones to be sent to Lahore. They held a press conference here on Saturday. The families said the samples have been mishandled in Karachi. Arif Iqbal Faruqi, who lost his wife and three children in the crash, questioned the organisation that made the DNA reports. “They were not even checking if the body was of a male or female. They had no intention to check. They scare the families so much that in the end when they finally get the body, they do a burial and never ask about it again,” said Faruqi. “We just want people to get back what’s theirs,” he said. Sindh Forensic DNA and Serology Laboratory at the University of Karachi issued a statement shortly after the press conference and said it has “employed all international quality standards while carrying out forensic DNA analyses of the submitted samples related to the unfortunate incident of plane crash of PIA”. It said that the laboratory relates the results of its reports with the tested items only and sampling, coding, tagging and handing over of bodies to legal heirs remains the responsibility of the medico-legal department. The director of the International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences at KU, Dr Iqbal Choudhary, said a “malicious media campaign” is going on by certain elements to undermine the efforts of SFDL as the first standard laboratory of Sindh. SFDL was assigned the job of identification of the bodies of victims, he explained, adding that all legal requirements were fulfilled when collecting reference samples. He said a team of the Punjab Forensic Science Agency visited the sample receiving unit on May 23 and demanded of the SFDL officials to handover the samples and case records to them. Authorisation was not provided. Dr Ishtiaq stated that the legal requirements were amicably explained to the team for their intended involvement and that later SFDL tried to engage PFSA through proper channel, but its request of collaboration did not receive a positive response.
