Security reasons: ‘All security guards must adhere to uniform code’

City’s commissioner sees plain-clothes personnel with weapons as a threat to society.

KARACHI: Karachi Commissioner Shoaib Ahmed Siddiqui has said that strict action will be taken against the employers of security guards if they do not adhere to uniform attire.

The decision was made in a bid to regulate and appropriate the hiring of personnel as security guards in light of the recent incidents of crime perpetrated by those hired for security. He was of the view that security guards in plain clothes were a threat to society as they could not be identified by the layman.

On Saturday, the commissioner, presiding over a meeting with officials of the All Pakistan Security Agencies Association, urged the security companies to ensure that the 50,000 private security guards deployed across the city were dressed in identical uniforms.

“Plain-clothes security guards should not be deployed or stationed at any place. Strict action will be taken against those violating the rules.”

The commissioner announced that the security companies that did not compile data about their employees would find their licences cancelled. He added that all security companies must be registered with the Home Department. “The security guards of these unregistered companies are serious threats to the city. We will not let them violate the law,” he added.

Siddiqui reported that there are 231 registered security companies currently operational in the city, with a large number of their employees hired as security guards at banks. He asked the officials of the security companies to ensure that the uniform of these security guards did not have similar features to those of the law enforcement agencies.

The meeting was attended by some officials and representatives of organisations.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 9^th, 2013.