THIS is apropos of Hussain Nadeem’s article ‘Civil Service in decline’ (Aug 27). The writer has highlighted a very important issue which needs to be addressed on an urgent basis. He has clearly mentioned as to how the English essay is assessed.

Mr Nadeem writes, “The grading of CSS examinations is not centralised. Answer scripts are left to the mercy of individual examiners who are likely to grade according to personal biases and training.”

I am one of those unlucky candidates who have become a victim of this paper-checking criterion. I got 62/100 marks in the English essay in CSS-2009.

The topic was ‘The future of democracy in Pakistan’ and in the same year I got 75/100 marks in Provincial Management Services in which the topic was ‘Action speaks louder than words’. However, in CSS - 2010, I was awarded only 25/100 when I was far better prepared and the topic this time was ‘Literature is the best criticism of life’.

Moreover, the writer has not addressed a crucial issue regarding it which is the allocation of departments once the final merit list is made. The merit list is made on the basis of the marks obtained (written+interview).

Another fatal mistake is being made here, as departments are allocated by the FPSC according to the position in the merit list. His or her educational and professional background is not given any importance.

Candidates, who are around the 100th position, are given ‘Income Tax’ , ‘Audit’ and ‘Accounts’ groups.

But most of the time, candidates have done their MA in English or Political Science or Journalism or Sociology. How do we expect that the students of social sciences can master the technique of complicated auditing?

On top of that, only those candidates stay in these departments who have either availed all three chances of appearing in the CSS exam or have become overage.

Otherwise, they spend more time on improving their position in the next exam rather than focusing on their training.

Finally, we will have to make drastic changes in this prestigious exam which could be departmentalised. A candidate should be given a clear choice of his department.

Once he chooses a department, he should expect that all the papers would be from the respective field. For instance, International Relations and International Law papers should be taken from those who are interested in Foreign Office, and auditing-related papers from the aspirants of Audit and Accounts group rather than Arabic, Punjabi or Pushto.

If we fail to change our outdated system, we will never have an active, professional and vibrant civil service.

S. ALI MOHSIN IMRAN London