<p>The Additional Inspector General of the Elite Force, in a letter sent to Rawalpindi's Chief Police Officer on December 11, had issued an order for conducting the security clearance of personnel assigned to guard VVIPs and senior officials.<br /><br />The letter, which was accessed by Geo News channel, noted that a large number of Elite Force personnel were assigned to guard the Prime Minister and other VVIPs.<br />"Before their deployment on security duty with any VVIP, the security clearance must be carried out through the concerned agencies," the letter said.<br /><br />The Chief Police Officer was asked to carry out the security clearance of personnel currently deployed with police officials and other VVIPs "through the concerned agencies in bare minimum time".<br /><br />Only personnel who had received security clearance should be deployed with VVIPs and they should be "rotated periodically", the letter said.<br /><br />Taseer, a leader of the ruling Pakistan People's Party and a close confidant of President Asif Ali Zardari, was gunned down by 26-year-old Mumtaz Qadri, a police guard from the Elite Force.<br /><br />Qadri said he killed the Governor for criticising the blasphemy law.Qadri had been removed from the Special Branch some years ago after a senior official determined he was a "security risk" because of his extremist leanings.<br /><br />Investigators are trying to determine whether Qadri had acted alone or was part of a conspiracy.<br /><br />Reports have said Qadri had told several colleagues of his plan to kill Taseer.<br />Questions have been raised as to why other members of Taseer's security detail did not stop Qadri or fire at him when he began shooting at the Governor.<br /><br />In the wake of the assassination, authorities across Pakistan have been conducting background checks on policemen assigned to guard VIPs.<br /><br />In Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, which has been hit by a Taliban insurgency, the Special Branch is vetting 400 policemen who guard VIPs, officials said.<br /><br />Interior Minister Rehman Malik has said the government will make psychiatric evaluations mandatory during the recruitment of security personnel to "check their mental health and leanings"</p>
<p>The Additional Inspector General of the Elite Force, in a letter sent to Rawalpindi's Chief Police Officer on December 11, had issued an order for conducting the security clearance of personnel assigned to guard VVIPs and senior officials.<br /><br />The letter, which was accessed by Geo News channel, noted that a large number of Elite Force personnel were assigned to guard the Prime Minister and other VVIPs.<br />"Before their deployment on security duty with any VVIP, the security clearance must be carried out through the concerned agencies," the letter said.<br /><br />The Chief Police Officer was asked to carry out the security clearance of personnel currently deployed with police officials and other VVIPs "through the concerned agencies in bare minimum time".<br /><br />Only personnel who had received security clearance should be deployed with VVIPs and they should be "rotated periodically", the letter said.<br /><br />Taseer, a leader of the ruling Pakistan People's Party and a close confidant of President Asif Ali Zardari, was gunned down by 26-year-old Mumtaz Qadri, a police guard from the Elite Force.<br /><br />Qadri said he killed the Governor for criticising the blasphemy law.Qadri had been removed from the Special Branch some years ago after a senior official determined he was a "security risk" because of his extremist leanings.<br /><br />Investigators are trying to determine whether Qadri had acted alone or was part of a conspiracy.<br /><br />Reports have said Qadri had told several colleagues of his plan to kill Taseer.<br />Questions have been raised as to why other members of Taseer's security detail did not stop Qadri or fire at him when he began shooting at the Governor.<br /><br />In the wake of the assassination, authorities across Pakistan have been conducting background checks on policemen assigned to guard VIPs.<br /><br />In Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, which has been hit by a Taliban insurgency, the Special Branch is vetting 400 policemen who guard VIPs, officials said.<br /><br />Interior Minister Rehman Malik has said the government will make psychiatric evaluations mandatory during the recruitment of security personnel to "check their mental health and leanings"</p>