I appeal to the prime minister and the chief justice to issue orders to conduct the CSS exams again or order recheck.
KARACHI: On February 23, 2013, the CSS exams were conducted by the Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC) in which 11,406 candidates appeared and after the surprisingly long wait of nine months, the results were finally announced on November 20. These proved to be a nightmare for majority of the candidates as only 2.09 per cent, i.e., 238 candidates out of 11,406 qualified for the written phase of the exam. The ratio of passed candidates would obviously further decrease after the results of the medical and psychological tests, and the interview comes in. It is pertinent to mention here that this was the worst result in the history of the CSS examinations.
Immediately after conducting the exams, it was revealed that in the Faisalabad centre, numerous copies of answer sheets were tampered with and replaced with the alleged involvement of the local postal authorities that made the entire examination process suspicious. However, instead of re-taking the entire exam from all candidates, some candidates were given a special concession to reappear in the exams and on August 19, the CSS exams were conducted again only for a few candidates. It is necessary to mention here that the inquiry of the entire matter is still in process and no finding has so far been announced by the Federal Investigation Agency. I wonder under what justification were some candidates given another chance to reappear in the exams?
On inquiring about the CSS exams, the candidates were told that a secret cell in the FPSC handled the CSS exams, including the checking of copies. Surprisingly, nobody knows how many members are working in the secret cell and what representations are given to the provinces in this secret cell for the CSS exams. On what criteria or under what law is this secret cell working?
On the one hand, the provincial assemblies are passing right to Information bills to make accessible information to the common man; on the other hand, the presence of ‘secret cells’ is making suspicious a highly reputable exam like the CSS.
Here are some important questions: why were the result of the CSS exams announced so late — after nine months — when in previous years, they were announced within a few months. For the first time in history, the total number of seats is higher than the number of candidates who passed the exams, so how will the remaining vacant seats be filled?
With so many major centres giving such abysmal results, which in previous years have done very well, I wonder how within one year, our country has seemingly lost so many talented people. Was this an attempt at face-saving after the Faisalabad fiasco? There is no doubt that the majority of candidates consider the entire result suspicious, including the factor of deliberately employing a very strict criterion to pass candidates.
I appeal to the prime minister and the chief justice to issue orders to conduct the CSS exams again, and if that is not possible, to at least order the rechecking of all copies of exams through neutral persons with equal representation from all provinces.
Imran Khan
Published in The Express Tribune, December 10th, 2013.
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