The loss of a child, elderly relative or vulnerable family member is an emotionally devastating event for any family. In the past, missing person cases involved a lot of running around, newspaper advertisements and frequent visits to the Police station. The Punjab Safe Cities Authority (PSCA) and Punjab Police have thus adopted cutting-edge technology to create an emergency digital intervention to structurally address this issue. The Mera Pyara App Punjab (Mera Pyara Portal) has become the largest centralized network in Pakistan to find lost children, people with special needs, Alzheimer’s patients and old-aged people with their families.
This contemporary portal not only provides descriptions; it also incorporates Artificial Intelligence (AI), sophisticated facial recognition technology and a unified biometric database, enabling the cross-referencing of listings throughout the country in a matter of seconds.
Core Infrastructure: How the Mera Pyara Portal Works
The “Mera Pyara” Virtual Child Safety Centre is a lost and found repository with high levels of integration and intelligence. The system is connected directly to the main database of the top-ranking non-governmental welfare organizations (including the Edhi Foundation), state-run Child Protection Bureaus, old age homes and orphanages across the country.
A detailed profile of the child (or elderly person) is entered on the portal whenever an unidentified child or elderly person is placed at a shelter or rescued by the police. At the same time, the system’s automatic algorithm begins a matching process as soon as a family files a missing person report, automatically identifying overlapping markers.
Reporting a Missing Person and Uploading Biometric Data
Families don’t need to wait 24 hours to register an emergency. These step-by-step digital paths are available to immediately broadcast a missing relative’s profile:
The Application: You can access the Application by downloading the official ‘Public Safety App’ from your mobile app store or log in directly to Mera Pyara Web Portal.
Profile Submission: Fill in the details of the missing person including their full name, approximate age, physical characteristics including the prominent ones, their last known address, and their guardian’s CNIC/B-Form number.
Photo and Biometric Upload: Submit a high-quality, clear photo of the missing person’s face (or upload a high-quality biometric photo). Practical and structural physical records, if available, should be included with the past records to be included in the digital file.
Physical Desk Integration: In order to ensure greater accuracy of identification, the Guardians will also be physically visiting their nearest ‘Police Khidmat Markaz’ and ‘Tahaffuz Markaz’ and/or the front desk of a police station to make a physical biometric print for verification and/or to arrange DNA matching sample.
The Integration of AI and Facial Recognition
The base of Mera Pyara App Punjab is its automated facial recognition matrix. Many children and elderly people who have been displaced, and are experiencing cognitive conditions (such as dementia, severe amnesia or schizophrenia) are completely unable to express their name, home address or place of origin.
In these vulnerable situations:
The citizens or the administrator can forward a well-captured picture of an unknown person to the designated WhatsApp Help Desk number: 0309-0000015.
The AI engine compares the unique facial features with thousands of live profile records that were created at regional old-age shelters, state care homes (Dar-ul-Aman) and public hospitals.
When a visual match is identified there is an automatic alert sent to the police and a dedicated police officer can confirm the match visually with the family via WhatsApp before arranging a safe move.
Reporting Protocols for Families Living Outside Punjab
The Platform is designed by the Punjab Safe Cities Authority but has a trace network that allows its use in all provinces. Residents of Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa or Balochistan can simply call on emergency helpline 15 and dial extension 03 to speak directly with the ‘Lost and Found’ desk. In addition, there is a public dashboard that has been put online, which allows citizens to compare the ongoing lost cases with live photos in a transparent manner.
