LAHORE: The Civil Services Academy (CSA) has launched its first-ever mentorship programme for the CSS aspirants in the far-flung areas who do not have the resources, guidance and facilities to compete for the superior services.

The CSA is connecting its 24 probationary officers of the ongoing 48th CTP with the 24 CSS aspirants from the underprivileged areas through an organisation, Million Smiles, founded by Zeeshan Afzal and Umm-e-Muhammad.

The academy has initially selected 24 probationers from its four academic houses who volunteered their services to mentor and support the aspirants selected from the far-off areas of the country.

In order to encourage more girls to take up superior services examinations, the CSA selected 60pc female probationers and 40pc male probationers to mentor CSS examination aspirants with a similar ratio.

The selected probationers are: Talal Shah, Munim Matin Afridi, Muhammad Laraib, Muhammad Hamza Abbas, Hamza Murad, Umer Ahmad Mehtab, Asad Shabbir, Bilal Hassan, Syed Imtiaz Hussain, Muhammad Osman Shakir, Abdullah Khan Tareen, Zoha Malik Sher, Paras Shahab, Qandeel Alam, Syeda Shehrbano Naqvi, Marryam Bakhat Awar, Neelam Ali, Resham Jehangir, Farwa Batool, Umaima Batool, Muneeba Fatima, Aaisha Tahir, Nehel Hafeez and Ayesha Arif Khan.

The CSA management has selected 24 aspirants through a process of tests, interviews and their CGPAs in their qualification examinations.

In order to give a sense of ownership to the academy employees, the CSA has offered 10pc seats to their kids to get benefit from the mentorship programme. The selected mentors shall establish a close liaison with the aspirants through Zoom and other communication platforms on a weekly basis. They will furnish a roadmap and monthly progress report. Performance of aspirants will also be monitored by focal person nominated by the Million Smiles’ management.

The CSA also has plans to prefer the selected mentors in the Common Training Programme director’s discretionary marks, appreciation letter, award of mentorship certificate at the end of the CTP, event report with photographs of mentors in Aurora 48.

CSA CTP Director Zulfiqar Younas says the mentorship programme had been conceived to empower youth in far-flung areas of the country as well as probationers with positive changes in their personalities.

Mr Younas says the probationers gave overwhelming response when they were offered the mentorship programme.

CSA Director General Dr Sajid Yoosufani lauds the probationers since they are going to do a great CSR (corporate social responsibility) for people from far-flung areas. He reiterates that the aspirants might not be allocated or be successful in appearing for CSS, but the idea is to groom them into better human beings.

Million Smiles’ CEO Zeeshan Afzal says his organisation had received some 1,700 applications from across the country, when this idea was rolled out.

Published in Dawn, January 8th, 2021