Govt intends to revamp CSS and other Superior Services in Pakistan

The government of Pakistan under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Imran Khan may consider eliminating CSS and other Superior Services from the country.

The PTI led government in September 2018, constituted a committee under Dr. Ishrat Hussain with a purpose to devise a roadmap to bring reforms in the civil services sector of Pakistan. It is a long-desired goal of PTI government to revolutionize the government departments and depoliticize the bureaucracy in Pakistan, and it is only possible with suitable reforms in the country’s civil services.

The committee, after six months of collaboration, has presented its proposal with required reforms in a meeting in Islamabad last week. The reforms presented by the committee aims to eliminate the colonial concept of the superior services in Pakistan.

The proposal suggests changing the current examination process of civil services by introducing the concept of specialized bureaucracy. With this new reform, there would be specialized exams for particular streams of CSS rather than requiring the aspiring civil servants to appear in a general examination for all cadres and services.

To make this happen the draft suggests establishing four streams or clusters so that the candidates with the specific skill set and qualification can join the respective streams. The committee also proposed a revised entry-level test process to evaluate the analytical ability, aptitude and domain-specific knowledge of all the aspiring candidates.

The four stages which the task force presented to the cabinet are as following;

• Stage 1: Initial Screening Test
• Stage 2: Steam-based specialized recruitment
• Stage 3: Psychometric evaluation
• Stage 4: Final interviews of shortlisted candidates

It was also proposed that the salaries of the civil servants must be equivalent to the private sector with decent post-retirement benefits.