Shuja Ahmed Awan
Acing the civil service exam has become a dream of many in the country. Aspirants have increased in these years by leaps and bounds. However, the majority of these are not destined to serve the country, but are of the mentality that civil service has so many perks and privileges that an ordinary government job or private sector cannot offer or provide. This has increased the number of CSS mentors and CSS academies significantly. It has come to a point that students after doing FSC are moving to Lahore for CSS preparation, as the city is considered the epicenter of CSS preparation. Infact, candidates acing the exam often teach others right after their result by offering different courses of their expertise. This has actually made CSS more a business than an exam. However, this obsession often leads to disappointment as only 1 to 2 percent candidates crack the exam annually while thousands of others fail in the exam. This obsession in Pakistan stems from the job frustration in youth.
However, CSS obsession is amid the criminal mentality of us as a society, aspirants are more attracted to cars, houses, and protocols of civil servants than to service itself. The Pakistani mentality has aided CSS obsession greatly. Unfortunately, rampant corruption and abuse of power in civil service has made this a job of great power and authority. Bureaucrats are counted as elites of society. Illiteracy of Pakistan deprives people to see civil servants as servants of people rather than elites who are powerful and authoritative. Pakistani society is of the opinion that whoever does CSS is hence successful. More importantly, people having professional degrees such as doctors, engineers and lawyers are appearing in CSS in great numbers. Professionals have studied about five and more years to complete their professional degree and aspire to join civil services which is totally a different field, these professionals got into colleges by competing with others who aspired to become doctors and engineers.
During the last three to four years, there have been more doctors and engineers in CSS than people of any other discipline. Moreover, failing in CSS affects the mental health of students due to societal pressure and hopes pinned to them by their well-wishers. Whereas, in some situations students do not actually aspire to appear in CSS, but their parents want them to appear willingly or unwillingly. This jeopardizes their career, as they have to appear unwantedly. People must be educated as professionals like doctors can contribute more than a civil servant in society. Take COVID-19 for example, doctors served more than civil servants around the world. In the same vein other professionals such as lawyers can contribute greatly to society than civil servants, following the deteriorated rule of law situation in Pakistan. Civil service is a great responsibility not a great face value job, the day Pakistani society will understand this, this obsession will come to an end.