LAHORE, June 22: The provincial bureaucracy on Thursday once again took up for consideration the buried file of direct induction of the grandson of former president Rafiq Tarar into the Provincial Management Service and regularisation of some contract employees of the Chief Minister’s Secretariat in BS-16.

The Punjab government had in March constituted a special board to appoint 14 contract employees of the CM Secretariat engaged on a regular basis in BS-16 and above.

Four of them were system engineers, one a programmer and one network administrator. They were initially working in the Punjab Information Technology Board and reportedly engaged for the CM Secretariat after the PITB was disbanded by the present government.

Five of the remaining contract employees were working as protocol and assistant protocol officers, and protocol coordinators getting between Rs12,000 and Rs30,000 monthly salaries.

The most significant of the employees was Attaullah Tarar, the grandson of Mr Rafiq Tarar, working as PSO to the chief minister since June 16, 2009, against a monthly salary of Rs50,000.

The board had directions to not only appoint him on a regular basis but also induct him directly in the PMS for which officers are recruited only by the Punjab Public Service Commission through a competitive examination.

Sources told Dawn on Thursday that a decision in this regard was kept pending because of serious objections to the legality of the appointment of Mr Tarar and the protocol officers including Zia Butt, Shahid Mehmood, Amir Ashraf and Amir Khan.

But the bureaucracy again considered the appointments on Thursday, sources said, adding if allowed the induction of Mr Tarar was likely to raise legal questions and objections by the PMS officials already serving in the province.