Karzai, a frequent critic of private security companies, has previously set dates for the cessation of their work in Afghanistan, but each time the deadline has been extended.
He did not say why he was giving the firms an extra 18 months, but the second half of this year has seen some of the bloodiest attacks on civilians and soldiers in the past decade.
“We give permission for them (to carry on working) for one and a half years more, and one and a half years later (in September 2013) our minister ... will close them all,” Karzai said.
Karzai, speaking at an anti-corruption event in the capital Kabul, said the prevalence of security contractors weakened the state by providing many of the services that the public sector otherwise would.
“Another reason why the Afghan government is not able to tackle corruption is a parallel administration to the Afghan government,” he said.
“Private security companies are the biggest barriers to law enforcement, and development of the interior ministry and police,” the president said.
In August 2010, Karzai said he wanted private security firms — with the exemption of firms whose guards work inside compounds used by foreign embassies, international businesses and aid and charitable organizations — to close by the end of that year. The deadline was later pushed back to March 2012.
His government tried unsuccessfully in 2009 to register the firms, find out the amount of arms they had and where they came from, and how much money the industry was worth, an Afghan security source said.
Foreign forces in Afghanistan are in the process of handing responsibility for security over to the Afghan army and police, and by the end of 2014, most foreign combat troops, currently numbering more than 100,000, will have gone home.
Though both Karzai and his international backers want Afghan forces to take control of security, Afghanistan has said that it will not be able to afford the army and police force it needs after 2014 without international help.
Even with the presence of Western forces in Afghanistan, violence is at its worst since the US invasion in 2001, and last week’s rare attacks on Muslim ceremonies have stoked fears of a sectarian conflict on top of the raging Taleban insurgency.
Bomb attacks on the ceremonies on Tuesday killed 80 people, Karzai also said on Sunday, far higher than the previously reported number, making Tuesday one of the deadliest days for civilians in ten years.
