The association’s chairman Munir Ahmed said the private concern, called the Sindh Police Welfare Security Guards Ltd, is ‘illegal.’ It has yet to be formally launched.
“State institutions such as the army, navy and police are allowed under the law to establish their own private security companies in the name of the welfare of their retired personnel,” said Ahmed. “But they need to follow the laid down procedures.”
According to the retired major, the Sindh police obtained a No-Objection Certificate from the provincial home ministry department in violation of the rules, when in fact they needed permission from the Ministry of Interior. “Also, a private security company has to be registered with the Security Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP).”
For their part, however, Assistant IG Police (Sindh Welfare Department) Irshad Ali Raza said the new private security company would be launched come what may. “We even have the SECP license,” he said. “We can launch it any time now. I think within a month there would be a formal announcement to this effect.”
Sources in the provincial home department confirmed that the Sindh Police department had obtained a No-Objection Certificate, but it was not to their knowledge whether they were successful in obtaining the SECP license.
At the moment, Ahmed claimed the Sindh Police Welfare Security Guards Ltd has set up shop inside the Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) office on II Chundrigar road, which again, is in violation of the rules. “When a state-backed institution forms its own private security company, it must be established in a commercial area with a separate office, management set up, arms and uniforms. One can’t use state resources to run a private business,” he said, adding that if the practice is allowed then private entrepreneurs like him would be at a huge disadvantage.
Assistant IG Irshad Ali Raza said in response that all due process would be followed, including fulfiling the requirements of hiring separate office space, buying separate shotguns and appointing retired police personnel to head the company.
The security agencies’ association’s Ahmed also alleged that the former CCPO, Waseem Ahmed, was the mastermind of the project.
When contacted by this newspaper, Waseem Ahmed, who has been promoted to the director general of the Federal Investigation Agency, hung up the phone, saying he was in the middle of an important meeting in Islamabad.
It was during the tenure of former IG Sindh Afzal Shigri when one of the first private security companies in Pakistan was formed and he was also instrumental in drafting the first law to govern such companies.
He said that the Sindh police force’s move would lead to competition with an already existing private company formed by the police department.
The National Police Foundation (NPF), which comes under the Ministry of Interior, already has a private security company by the same name. “I think the role of the NPF’s private security company should have been expanded instead of the Sindh police forming a separate private company,” Shigri said, adding that this give police departments in other provinces excuse to follow suit.
NPF’s Regional Director Sindh CK Chachar agreed that such a move would lead to competition between two private security companies when there is already a shortage of retired police personnel worthy of being hired.
“There will now be two factories instead of one,” said Chachar, adding that no one has contacted him about Sindh Police Welfare Security Guards Ltd. “It looks like there would be no coordination between the two entities either,” he mused.
SP Arab Mehar is the superintendent for private security agencies. He has headed the cell since it was formed in March within the Sindh police force to monitor private security companies in the province.
He said that they had yet to decide who would head the new private concern. “Perhaps they will assign the SP of this cell to head the operations of the new private security company. It is still undecided,” he said.
According to the Private Security Agencies Ordinance, no serving officer of the armed forces or the police can head a private security company.
Also, Mehar’s cell continues to operate despite the fact that the home ministry still hasn’t issued a formal notification mandating it to monitor the activities of 220 private security companies operating in Sindh. “That too is being processed,” said Mehar.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 27th, 2010.
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