Central Superior Services of Pakistan 3802199 220934332 2008-06-22T08:13:51Z Littlealien182 3345501 Reverted [[WP:AGF|good faith]] edits by [[Special:Contributions/Ahmed Kasi|Ahmed Kasi]]; Possible spammin. ([[WP:TW|TW]]) The '''Central Superior Services''' of [[Pakistan]] (or commonly known as CSS) is the name given to a group of highly prestigious and powerful Pakistani Federal Government Departments. Recruitment to the officer’s cadre (Basic Pay Scale 17) of these services is extremely competitive and it usually takes a year to complete the written examination and the subsequent psychological tests as well as interviews. Federal Public Service Commission of Pakistan or FPSC<ref>[http://www.fpsc.gov.pk/ ::: Fpsc :::<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> is entrusted with this task and it is a general perception that it conducts the task of Competitive Examinations with full honesty. The minimum age and educational qualification for appearance in this examination is 21 years and a Bachelors (14 years of education) respectively while the maximum age limit is 28 years. According to the estimates of FPSC a total of 8,000 – 10,000 candidates apply for an appearance in its annual Competitive Examination. On an average 5,000 – 6,000 actually appear and approximately 250-500 candidates qualify the written portion of CSS Examination. Out of these successful candidates a total of 100-150 (roughly 2% of the actual applicants) make it to this sacred corps of bureaucrats. Currently CSS includes the following Occupational Groups. * Pakistan Audit and Accounts Service<ref> [http://csspk.com/Accounts%20_Group.html Accounts Group - Civil Service of Pakistan]</ref> * Police Service of Pakistan (PSP)<ref>[http://csspk.com/Police_Service_of_Pakistan.htm Police Service of Pakistan - Civil Service of Pakistan]</reF> * District Management Group (DMG)<ref>[http://csspk.com/District_Management_Group.htm District Management Group - Civil Service of Pakistan]</ref> * Income Tax Group (ITG)<ref> [http://csspk.com/Income_Tax_Group.htm Income Tax Group - Civil Service of Pakistan]</ref> * Customs and Excise Group (CEG)<ref> [http://csspk.com/Customs_Group.htm Customs Group - Civil Service of Pakistan]</ref> * Foreign Service of Pakistan (FSP)<ref>[http://csspk.com/Foreign_Service_of_Pakistan.htm Foreign Service of Pakistan -Civil Service of Pakistan]</ref> * Postal Group (PG) <reF>[http://csspk.com/Postal_Group.htm Postal Group - Civil Service of Pakistan]</ref> * Commerce & Trade Group (CTG)<ref>[http://csspk.com/Commerce_Trade_Group.htm Commerce & Trade Group - Civil Service of Pakistan]</reF> * Railways Group (RG)<ref> [http://csspk.com/Information_Group.htm Information Group - Civil Service of Pakistan]</reF> * Information Group (IG)<ref> [http://csspk.com/Information_Group.htm Information Group - Civil Service of Pakistan]</reF> == History of Civil Services in Pakistan == The civil Bureaucracy is a [[British Raj|colonial legacy]] in this part of the world. The British used to rule the native population through [[Indian Civil Service]] (ICS) and most of the officers in ICS were British themselves. It was in the early 20th Century that the Indians also started competing against the British and many Indians eventually made it to the ICS. With the [[partition of India]] in [[1947]], the term 'Central Superior Services' was used in Pakistan and the concept of All-Pakistan Services continued. The latter consisted of the Civil Service of Pakistan and the Police Service of Pakistan, whereas the Central Services included the Pakistan Foreign Service and a broad category of Finance and other services. The Finance category included the Pakistan Audit and Accounts Service, Pakistan Railway Accounts Service,Pakistan Military Accounts Service, Pakistan Taxation Service, and the Pakistan Customs and Excise Service. The Central Services other than these included the Pakistan Postal Service,Pakistan Military Land and Cantonment Service, Central Secretariat Service, and Central Information Service. Each of these services had its own cadre and composition rules, specifying the total cadre strength in terms of its number of positions. With the Civil Services Reforms of [[1973]] a new system of Common Training Program or CTP was introduced and all of these occupational groups (12 at that time) were required to go through a mandatory combined training at Civil Services Academy (CSA), Lahore. The batch of officers who attended CSA in 1973 is recognized as “1st Common”. Up till 5th Common the allocation of occupational groups was done after the culmination of Common Training Program but from 6th Common onwards this task has also been assumed by FPSC. Even till this day it is an official procedure that once the Probationary Officers successfully complete their CTP then they undergo some further Specialized Training Program (STP) in their own professional academies. == Armed Forces and Civil Services of Pakistan == Commissioned officers of [[Pakistan Army]], [[Pakistan Air Force]], and [[Pakistan Navy]] have their own quota of 10% in District Management Group (DMG), Foreign Service of Pakistan (FSP), and Police Service of Pakistan (PSP). Usually officers of [[Captain]] Rank are short listed by General Head Quarters (GHQ) and selected against this quota after the permission directly by [[Chief of Army Staff]] before interview process. why not other commissioned gov. servants are offered this back door enterance to lucrative posts. Despite the fact they are more competent then army officers. Could any rationality of this prejudiced law be explained. == Reform of Civil Services == Despite the fact that Civil Services of Pakistan have been still running on the pattern set out by [[British Raj]] (no major change has been performed), the [[Musharraf]] government started a major reform process of it. The task was to be performed by National Commission of Government Reforms (NCGR) under the chairmanship of Dr. [[Ishrat Hussain]], the former governor of [[State Bank of Pakistan]]. The final report that was published in September 2007 stated that four CSS cadres i.e., Pakistan Railway Service, Pakistan Postal Service, Commerce and Trade Group, and the Information Service of Pakistan, should be axed. According to the recommendation, Postal and Railway Service should be made autonomous commercial bodies, with Information Service be suspended till further notice. The report also highlighted broad changes in the examination system, with the recommendation of a personality test be made part of the selection process. == References == {{Reflist}} {{refbegin}} * [http://www.fpsc.gov.pk Federal Public Service Commission] * [http://www.cssforum.com.pk CSS Exam Preparation Guide] * [http://www.csspk.com Information Working of Civil Services in Pakistan] * [http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007\10\01\story_1-10-2007_pg1_4 Reform of CSS] * [http://www.ilmkidunya.com/competitive%20exam/index.asp Information, News, Papers on CSS, PCS and other competitive exams] {{refend}} == See also == * [[Civil Services Academy]] [[Category:Civil Service of Pakistan]]