Prime Minister’s Adviser on National Security Sartaj Aziz has said it would take some time for Pakistan to be able to completely eliminate terrorism from the country.
The statement was made in a message to the participants of a certification ceremony held here on Saturday.
The event was organised for assigning security grading to Wackenhut Pakistan, a sister concern of the Pathfinder Group, by the Pakistan Credit Rating Agency (PACRA).
“The security situation in Pakistan has remained precarious in recent years as the country remained at the forefront of the war against terrorism,” stated Aziz, who was the chief guest at the event but could not show up due to an unexpected official appointment.
According to the statement, Aziz said things had started improving and trends showed a gradual decrease in number of terrorist attacks at public places after the recent operation against terrorist outfits across the country.
“However, it will take time to completely eliminate this threat,” he said.
The adviser conceded that sometimes the crime situation in the country, as in other developing countries, remained volatile in the form of robberies, extortion, kidnapping, thefts and arson.
“The difficult security situation has affected every aspect of national life and specially the economy,” Aziz said.
Lauding private security agencies for supplementing the efforts of law enforcement agencies, the PM’s adviser said absence of any standard testing system had impacted the quality of private security services in the country.
Addressing the gathering, PACRA Managing Director Adnan Afaq said this was the first ever security grading of any private security company in South Asia.
All the speakers at the occasion emphasized the importance of security grading of private security companies in the changing security paradigm in Pakistan
Afaq said: “The security grading – the first ever in Pakistan and in South Asia – will go a long way in the development of this very important sector.”
He also expressed his views on the “Changing paradigm of private security services in Pakistan”, shedding light on the process of security grading and why it is extremely necessary in the present security circumstances in Pakistan.
“This security grading is basically an opinion on the ability of a company to provide protection services.”
He highlighted the fact that there has been a mushroom growth in security companies which has led to increased competition and a severe price war, reduction in rates, pressure on margins and compromise on service quality, leading to weak guard verification.
“Bringing the price down led to compromise on quality and untrained guards being hired. The guards are ill equipped with no contingency backups thus seriously impairing the level of protection the security companies purport to provide,” he said.
Addressing the audience, Pathfinder Group Chairman Ikram Sehgal said that it was a matter of satisfaction that Wackenhut employees had impressed a hard taskmaster like PACRA to give the company a “STRONG” grading.
He said there was room for improvement and that security grading will provide a level playing field in the evaluation process, which at present is dependent upon the uneven expertise and evaluation by different experts.
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