The paradox of the Superior Services

It is that time of the year when around two hundred ambitious young men and women, as well as their families, celebrate their success in the Central Superior Services – CSS examination.

There is a palpable sense of joy and self-fulfillment among the successful candidates and a wave of dejection in others who could not reach the finishing line. In a country where patwaris (land department officials) and similarly ranked officials in police, customs, taxation etc are mostly chosen on the basis of sifarish or bribes, CSS offers a path to join coveted services on the basis of one's academic qualifications and hard work, through a nationwide competitive examination.

The credibility of the national competitive examination apart, it is true that the CSS recruiting system comprising written as well as oral and psychological tests under the Federal Public Service Commission remains frozen in time. The only major change has been its opening to women candidates who keep increasing their share of the CSS with the passage of time. They have proved their merit by securing very high positions including the top slot in the examination.

The previous gender discrimination was done away with in Z A Bhutto's time, who had ordered an overhaul of the federal services. He also saw to it that all selected candidates were given common training in Lahore, before branching off to their specialized training institutions. Almost five decades later, this pattern continues but Bhutto's strong desire to break the elitist position of the CSP now known as PAS remains unfulfilled.

It is easy to discern at a glance that the top position holders have opted to join the Pakistan Administrative Service, followed by the Police Service of Pakistan and the Foreign Service of Pakistan. Is it normal that the preferences have barely changed over decades?

The prestige of these three services is also seen in the practice that the armed forces nominate officers against their quota to these three cadres. A former member of the FPSC commented that while appearing in the competitive examination, almost all candidates have the ambition of joining one of these three services. It is another story that a majority will not make it to these cadres and instead join the audit, customs, income tax, trade, information and other federal services because they all promise an assured career path and rise to the highest levels of civil service.

Questions do arise often about the suitability of this system of a common entrance examination. But every attempt of reorganization or review has remained unsuccessful. The reform committee chaired by Dr Ishrat Hussain made clear recommendations for replacing the common examination by a system of clusters where the candidates will have to appear in some subjects related to the specific cadres. However, like other findings of Dr Ishrat's commission, their call for reformatting the competitive examination remains unimplemented.

It is a coincidence that keeping in view the health emergency, the FPSC has postponed this year's examinations. This can be an opportunity to quickly reconsider the Ishrat team's recommendations and bring innovations to the CSS examination. The counter argument can be: why fix something if it ain't broke? The gruelling written exam and a rigorous oral test, though not perfect, have a degree of credibility which should not be tinkered just for the sake of change. And, to begin, the name CSS itself needs a change.

The notion of ‘Central Superior Services’ should be scrapped forthwith as every public service is paid for by the people to serve them. It was a smart ploy by some arch bureaucrats to add the word superior before services. The anachronism has lasted long enough. The Cabinet Division and the FPSC can jointly coin a new name like Federal Services Examination – FSE – or some other suitable term to emphasize the federal and public service aspect of the entry level test.

Two other issues have cropped up in the last few days. This paper (The News) broke a story about opening up top secretariat posts to experts from the private sector, which are reserved for senior civil servants from various cadres. This would be a major change in the system and finally accept the idea that the generalist cadres cannot provide requisite leadership in tasks which did not exist a couple of decades ago. "We are opening up the top secretariat posts so far reserved for generalist cadre officers to technical experts from the private sector as well as from within the government", affirmed official sources, according to the news report.

The cabinet has reportedly decided to allow technocrats with higher qualifications to compete for Management Scale Positions (MP). The new procedure will lead to a larger pool of candidates and provide a level playing field to those who meet the eligibility criteria.

Finally, there is a subject of much wider interest – the pay and pension system, which could go through major changes from the new financial year. There have been repeated stories about the burgeoning burden of pay and pensions at the federal level, that the government can no longer afford. A logical answer would have been to reduce numbers in the federal civil services after passage of the 18th Amendment which has transferred functions and resources to the provinces.

In line with the institutional reforms committee's findings, a new contributory pension system may be introduced for the new entrants. The cumulative effect of pension contributions and downsizing of the federal services should lead to substantial savings.

Will the federation show the will power to implement the changes? Time is running out.

Email: saeed.saeedk@gmail.com