KARACHI, 3 October 2003 — Providing security to Karachi’s residents and businesses is a lucrative business. Already 117 companies have sprung up and 235 have applied for permits. Each guard costs between Rs.6,000 and 8,000 per month. The guards can be seen everywhere. At a KFC, while you pay attention to the colonel’s chicken several uniformed guards, armed with Kalashnikovs, keep an eye on anything suspicious.

The Sanaullahs who live next door are a big name in the retail business here. They have a number of smart-looking men in fatigues armed with shiny guns. Every morning I peek out from my window to watch them have their little meetings before they take command at the various gates and doors with their walkie-talkies in hand.

Even the newspaper offices don’t seem to be safe from criminal elements. A “Muhafiz” guard sits at Karachi’s largest circulated Urdu newspaper, Jang. He is not very agile and speaks Urdu with difficulty. Clearly he is not ready for me, as I just to tease him say: “Only God can be a Muhafiz, you should change your name.” He mutters: “That’s our company’s name. I don’t know what you mean.”

Karachi’s crime rate has clearly gone up so much that security guards are needed everywhere. Capt. Razzaq, a retired army man who works for Superior Security, which employs 900 security guards, tells me: “Crime has definitely gone up. And now it has also become more organized.

In the past, most crimes were committed by individuals. Now there are gangs who operate in a collective and therefore superior way.”

So how effective are the guards? “To be honest,” Capt. Razzaq said, “Our guards are only successful in repelling attacks 40 percent of the time. The dacoits are better armed. We are not allowed by the government to keep automatic weapons, but the dacoits carry the most lethal and the most modern weapons. In 60 percent of the cases the criminals tie up our guards and sometimes even kill them. Dil key tassali kay liye guards acchay hain,” he said with a laugh.

A relative of mine who travels a lot had posted a guard at his defense home paying the security company Rs.8,000 per month for his services.

Around Eid Al-Azha, the guard asked for a loan from my relative, which he refused. In the morning he found that the guard had stolen the two goats my relative had got for Eid. The guard left him a note advising him not to bother tracking him down.