KARACHI, Jan 27: The security administration after finalising a psychiatric test for the personnel deputed on VIPs’ security and trainee policemen has now decided that guards being hired by private security companies must also undergo the same exercise, officials and industry people confirmed to Dawn on Thursday.

The decision was conveyed to the private security companies during their recent meeting with senior officials of the Sindh home department, which wanted to “streamline the data of armed guards” by assessing their “tolerance and aggression” levels.“As agreed between the two sides, the private security companies with the coordination of the home department will formulate a test required for all candidates being hired by every single organisation,” said Sharfuddin Memon, consultant to the Sindh home ministry.

“The test is being designed with the help of professionals from the armed forces that will be commonly used by the private security companies for hiring across the province. It will come into affect within weeks.”

He said the same test had been made part of the courses being conducted in police training centres, where recruits would go through the exercise that would help determining their aptitude and personality.

The provincial government earlier this month decided to conduct a psychiatric test of personnel deputed on VIPs’ security to determine their “tolerance and aggression” levels. The move was apparently prompted by the assassination of Punjab Governor Salman Taseer by his armed police guard on January 4.

Mr Taseer was sprayed with a hail of bullets while he was walking to his car after an afternoon meal at the Kohsar Market, a shopping centre in Islamabad popular with foreigners and wealthy Pakistanis. The incident proved a wake-up call for the police and security authorities in Sindh that handle some 5,000 policemen deputed mainly for the security of VIP, VVIPs, businessmen, senior politicians, religious scholars and influential individuals.

The authorities said that it was not enough to plan such an exercise only for the police personnel, as a large number of private armed guards were deputed to protect several individuals and business interests of local and foreign organisations. “The companies have showed willingness to implement the fresh regulations,” the officials said.

“We have agreed with the proposed measures and are now waiting that such a test is finalised and implemented for fresh hiring,” said Muffasar Malik, chairman of All-Pakistan Security Agencies Association (APSAA), who represented private security agencies in recent talks with the home department.

He said: “The exercise is meant for the companies operating in Sindh. But once it’s successfully run in the province, we would like to apply it across Pakistan for fresh hiring in any part of the world by our member companies.”

In Karachi alone, more than 50,000 armed private guards of over 200 security agencies were deputed to protect businesses of different companies and life of individuals, he said, adding that demand of their services was on the rise under the existing security situation.

“It would not be possible to organise such an exercise for already hired private guards. But we hope things would improve with this fresh initiative,” Mr Malik added.

Mr Memon, consultant to the Sindh home ministry, also have some hopes along the same lines though some key operators of private security agencies were not optimistic about the results of the exercise considering the history of decisions and their outcome.

“For instance, a special police cell was formed in March 2010 to verify the personal details and monitor the performance of the private security guards. However, after almost a year the cell has failed to meet the required task due to resource constraints as well as a lack of interest of those posted there,” said a source privy to the planned move.

“These steps sound extremely good on paper but unfortunately in practical terms, they hardly deliver the desired level of results. The main reason behind such failures appears lack of interest of the authorities with the passage of time.”