Bureau Report
Lahore : Punjab Safe Cities Authority (PSCA), through its Virtual Centre for Child Safety and ‘Mera Pyara’ platform, has achieved another remarkable success by tracing the family of Abdul Qadeer, a hearing- and speech-impaired man who went missing a decade ago. The breakthrough, made possible through advanced facial recognition technology, has reunited a family separated for ten years, highlighting the transformative role of technology in humanitarian service.
According to a PSCA spokesperson, Abdul Qadeer went missing from Karachi’s Korangi area in 2016 while visiting the city with his family. He was only 13 years old at the time. As he was unable to hear or speak, he could not communicate his home address or provide information about his family, making his identification and tracing his relatives particularly challenging.
In 2019, Abdul Qadeer was found by a local family in Lakki Marwat district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The family took him under its care and subsequently contacted the PSCA’s ‘Mera Pyara’ team to help locate his biological family. Acting on the request, the Safe City team entered his photographs and available information into the system and initiated the search process.
The advanced facial recognition system proved instrumental in resolving the decade-old missing-person case. By matching Abdul Qadeer’s photograph against historical missing-person records, the system generated an alert identifying a record of Abdul Qadeer, son of Abdul Kabir, who had gone missing from Karachi’s Korangi area in 2016.
The PSCA spokesperson said that Abdul Qadeer’s father had also previously approached the ‘Mera Pyara’ team in search of his missing son. Following the technological match, the Safe City team arranged a video call between Abdul Qadeer and his family to verify his identity. During the call, Abdul Qadeer recognised his family members, confirming the breakthrough and restoring contact after ten long years of separation.
The spokesperson said the achievement reflects PSCA’s continued commitment to leveraging cutting-edge technology for public service and humanitarian assistance. The ‘Mera Pyara’ platform is actively working to trace missing children, elderly persons and individuals with special needs, helping reunite them with their families through technology-driven identification and coordinated efforts.
The spokesperson urged citizens to report information about missing or unclaimed persons by calling the Punjab Safe Cities Authority’s Emergency Helpline 15 and pressing 3. Timely information can help the relevant team initiate the search process and facilitate the reunion of missing individuals with their loved ones.
