Pakistan's private security is thriving and worth well over half a billion dollars a year.
The increase is largely due to the lack of government action, countless terror attacks and sporadic violence that the military and other law enforcement agencies struggle to contain.
It is an industry that provides jobs for around 350 000 people, many of whom are poorly trained and badly paid - but that has not deterred its growth.
Al Jazeera's Imtiaz Tyab reports from Karachi.
