KARACHI: The government in Pakistan’s southern Sindh province has decided to engage private guards for the day of polling under a ‘security plan’ for the 2013 general elections in a move that may surprise a majority of the contesting parties whose consistent demand for deployment of army troops inside polling stations does not seem to be materialised.
A top official said the decision in this regard had ‘formally’ been made and only modalities needed to be worked out in consultation with the provincial security administration and private security companies.
Private security guards were likely to fill a gap between the available and required number of security personnel of Rangers, Frontier Constabulary and police, he said.
“On polling day, we need nearly 90,000 security officials,” said Sharfuddin Memon, special assistant to the caretaker Chief Minister of Sindh. “And we have available force of around 67,000 officials of police, Rangers and Frontier Constabulary. So there is a plan in place to bridge the gap with the help of private security guards.”
He said it was too early to share the exact number of private security guards needed for more than 4,000 polling stations across the province where almost half of them had already been declared ‘sensitive’. Talks with the private security agencies were on, he said, which were likely to be finalised within the next few days.
The move by the provincial government may satisfy the caretaker setup in terms of measures it had promised to ensure “free, fair and peaceful elections” but effectiveness of such measures remains doubtful considering the past performance of private security guards hired by commercial banks and other business facilities.
Internews
