October 10, 2001	Wednesday	Rajab 22, 1422

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ISLAMABAD, Oct 9: As many as 148 seats have been recommended for final allocation to the Federal Public Service Commission by different ministries through the establishment division, well-placed sources in the FPSC told Dawnon Tuesday.

“Out of more than 8,000 candidates, who took their written examination, 961 candidates qualified for the interview, implying that 816 candidates will not be able to get a job even if they pass their interviews”, an official said.

As much as 100 per cent increase was recorded in the number of candidates, who appeared in the CSS-2000 examination due to reduction in the upper-age limit. The decision to reduce the upper-age limit from 30 to 28 years was taken last year, but it is to be implemented for candidates appearing in the CSS-2001 examination.

Earlier, there were reports in the press that owing to the record increase in the number of passing candidates in the written examination, there would be more than 3,000 seats for the final allocation in different groups.

But conversely, the number of seats have been cut short due to a number of reasons. “This is done due to the abolishment of two groups of CSS cadre i.e. the office management group (OMG) and military land and cantonment group (MLC). (The) government is also facing paucity of funds”, said an official concerned.

The sources said that last year, the number of seats reserved for the police service of Pakistan (PSP) had been 60, but this year the number of the seats sanctioned by the interior ministry were just 14.

Interestingly, according to the devolution plan, assistant superintendents of police (ASPs) would be posted as SHOs, but the number of seats given to the PSP told a different story, they added.

The district management group (DMG), which used to be the most wanted group in the civil services, has now lost its charm due to the devolution plan. The number of seats reserved for the DMG are 11.

According to the sources, the distribution of seats to different groups are: accounts group, 26 seats; customs, 20 seats; foreign services group, nine seats; income tax group, 41 seats; information services group, 10 seats; postal services, eight seats, and seats reserved for the Railways are nine.