CSS Times

The tens of thousands of the highly educated but jobless youth are in desperate search of a job while hundreds of vacancies are laying vacant in FPSC for the reason that educated youth cannot qualify the exams held for the appointments. In support of the self-projected claim, FPSC told the nation that the 9,010 candidates appeared in the CSS examination-2017 have failed to reach the multilayers criterion laid down to judge the talent of the prospect ruling elite. On one hand, the number of disgruntled young people rapidly ascend the top of Himalaya and on the other hand the powerful state institutions under the complete control of the privileged minority in the structure of power, have failed to responds the challenge. Historically, whenever young population outnumbers the middle and old population, disastrous revolution becomes due. The recent population consensus shows that the young population forms more than 50% of total population for the first time in the 70 years history of Pakistan. This proposition is sufficient cause to collapse the system of the state. Radically charged revolution always plays destructive role in the nation facing long series of challenges, resulting in civil war in which fellowmen fight with fellowmen. The furious storm beneath the bottom of the Pakistani state and society gets momentum in every successive time because of the fact that important state institutions continue to enjoy a great inertia, lacking ability to perceive the fast reaching disaster. Everything is rotten in the state of Denmark, as Shakespeare explored the reason in the age of decadency and fall in 16th and 17th century Europe. Hence, our so-called prestigious institution FPSC itself has failed to give genius, prudent, honest and competent bureaucracy to the nation facing serious challenges since the day first it establish its state. This is the gloomy tale of the mother land FPSC diligently refuses to be the main character in this sad episode.

Like all national institutions of pivotal role in construction and reconstruction of a nation state, the Federal Public Service Commission of Pakistan has sunk in the deep and violent ocean of decline ever growing furious. For, recent announcement of the CSS Exam-2017 has sent a wave of anguish and resentment to the overwhelming majority of the youth taking part in the aforesaid exam, making thin minority of only 3.33 % to celebrate the victory in the competition for making of future ruling elite. Eulogizing its magnificent stature, the FPSC blatantly shifted the responsibility of the total scarcity of the talent in the fifth large democracy in the world, on others, laying the blame on the quota system and illiterate educated youth due to extremely low standard of higher education. Overtly, this over-emphasized claim may look genuine to some beneficiary of the situation but in reality the FPSC enjoys no exception as is equally blamed. As our national history tells, it has become an easy and fashionable trend to blame the politicians, military or to the judiciary for collective failure, leaving real culprits unaccounted for the collapse of the system of the state apparatus, forgetting the historic truth that the mechanism of decline is all ways collective and inclusive.

The philosophy of history we have come to know through greatest minds not in farthest time like Hegel and Toynbee conveys categorical message and innate lesson that a decline that reaches the final stage encompasses all the stakeholders including the state and social institutions. In this perspective, the bureaucracy’s failure to deter the total collapse of governance will be the failure of the prime hatchery——FPSC—-hatching the eggs of the peculiar specie destined to rule the multitudes. Thus, not only the HEC and Universities but also the FPSC is primarily responsible for allowing 95% of the vacancies unfilled. The plea that the quota system appears the cardinal cause for not filling all the vacancies, is unmaintainable being illogical; rather it looks insulter to the talented but voiceless youth seeking knowledge at farthest corner of the country in alien language without having least facilities necessary for acquiring knowledge. So, such kind of approach indicates political prejudice of the urbanized minds declaring the only genius and competent who can speak English fluently and write it with thorough dexterity. If essentially true, then we should call back our old masters, the English people to reign us, once more, being prime experts in their mother language, English. If the dominant language is honoured with the false shower of award of the only remedy of all the challenges, then how did the European communities break the shackles of the monarchic Latin in the Christendom? The FPSC must know the historic truth that the marvellous book on celestial world demolishing the false world of Aristotle and Ptolemy was not in Latin but in native language. For, the cardinal reason hidden in the hurdle in the way to finding geniuses in the country of 223 million people, is the decadent system of competition the FPSC evolved over the period of 35 years of indoctrination and a single dimensional theory injected in the minds of the youth subsequently given the task to response the age of uncertainty brewing the crafty challenges.

The test litmus the FPSC has fixed shows glaring deficiencies, inbuilt-flaws and self-negating contradictions. For example, on one hand, a simple graduate routinely defeat the contestants having successfully qualified for PhD degrees and on the other the highest scorer of 800 marks is failed and as the lowest scorers having just 650 marks are passed to get lucrative posts. Failure of the highest qualified candidates having more marks and the victory of lowest scorers with the lowest degrees form integral part of the long history of FPSC. In 2014, the question about the result of CSS Exam-2013 was raised at the floor of the Senate of Pakistan. Divulging the details, the relevant federal minister told the House 90% of successful candidates belonged to Lahore, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, Karachi and Peshawar, leaving only 10% for the entire country. The legislators in the Upper House, irrespective of their political affiliations, agitated the vital discrepancy, for the assurance came from the minister to probe into grave matter. As Senate Secretariat itself gives no importance to a fair share of all stakeholders in the federation, the issue was thrown in the dustbin of history, though I compiled multiple stories for the English daily which were published, explicitly. One reason to raise this issue at the highest forum was that substantial number of the candidates having excellent academic career in high class English medium institutions including publication of research articles in the leading newspapers were among the failed candidates, as they could not pass either the Essay or Precise Writing.

A large number of the young candidates with brilliant degrees of M. Phil Economic or Development Economics from worldly recognized universities could not compete with the simple graduates because they expressed independent concept of national ideology. Even the highly qualified and talented candidates were wilfully debarred from the success only on the pretext that they refused to eulogize the national heroes in the conventional frame of reference. When these discouraged candidates got admission in the famous academies whose brilliant students had already succeeded in CSS Exams getting top positions, the first lesson they were given was that they should never criticize the Muslim Sultans, Shahs, Mughals and Turks of Ottoman Empire, if they wanted to become the part of the imperial system of royal service. As a result, most of disgruntled talented youth killed the idea to become a part of the future bureaucracy in Pakistan while remaining left the country in order to serve the foreign nations where they are now working on prestigious posts. This is the cardinal cause generating cyclical brain drain in Pakistan which continues unnoticed purely on the reason that talent carries no significance, at all. Only mediocre or fools in some cases, incompetent and dishonest are declared successful in CSS Exams due to their institutional-politico linkages. For the reason, we have the parasitic army of the state functionaries the FPSC have been selecting for the last 3.5 decades that have failed to offer a creative response to the challenge, as they first lack the geniuses and then natural capacity to mitigate the emerging disaster.

The writer is Ex-Director General Senate of Pakistan.

Published in: Daily Nation Lahore