WHILE youth across the globe prepare for the age of artificial intelligence (AI), entrepreneurship and space exploration, Pakistan’s brightest minds remain fixated on the Central Superior Services (CSS) and Provincial Management Service (PMS) exams. This paradox is not simply misplaced ambition; it reflects deeper structural failures — an education system that rewards rote learning over creativity, a society that mistakes authority for success, and a nation reluctant to embrace the demands of the 21st century.

The developed world continues to advance because it has quickly adapted to changing realities. Its education systems foster creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving. Youth are trained to question and innovate — skills that drive start-ups, breakthroughs, and technological revolutions.

The rise of AI has reshaped labour markets, making adaptability the new currency. Pakistan, however, remains trapped in a colonial mindset. What explains this unrelenting thirst for CSS? Ask aspirants or their self-styled mentors, and the answers converge on a misplaced sense of authority, social prestige and the lure of privileges.

The obsession, however, is historical. Colonial rulers built a bureaucracy that embodied power and status — a mindset still alive today. As historian Ayesha Jalal notes, Pakistan has struggled to break free of its colonial institutional legacies, and the civil service remains one of the clearest examples. For many families, success is synonymous with joining the bureaucratic elite.

In a country with high unemployment and weak private-sector growth, civil service promises job security, income and admiration that other professions cannot match. With little support for innovation or research, CSS remains the default ‘respectable’ path, while entrepreneurship, creativity and teaching are undervalued.

The exam itself reinforces the problem. Structured around memory tests and the regurgitation of official narratives, CSS leaves little room for questioning and critical analysis. Ironically, despite re-warding conformity over creativity, it has a notoriously low pass rate — often below two per cent. Thousands of young Pakistanis spend years preparing, only to end up disillusioned when they fail. Many eventually leave the country, contributing to Pakistan’s brain drain.

Meanwhile, the very structure of bureaucracy is under strain. Designed for governance in the mid-20th century, it is ill-equipped to address the challenges of the 21st. Attracting the brightest minds into this outdated system will not solve Pakistan’s governance crisis; in fact, it risks reinforcing it.

Consider the contrast: while India is nurturing a start-up ecosystem worth billions, China is investing heavily in AI, and Bangladesh is expanding its tech exports, Pakistan is still channelling its talent into a civil service model inherited from the British Raj.

The so-called mentors and academies, thriving on desperation, exploit aspirants by selling plagiarised notes, ready-made books, and false promises of success. This CSS industry, built on dreams of authority, reinforces illusions of prestige rather than preparing students for modern realities. It has become a business of selling hope, not building futures. Dismantling this delusion requires more than cosmetic reforms.

Pakistan must redesign its education system and curriculum to match the demands of modern world. What the country needs is an ecosystem that values innovation. Pakistan’s future will not be built by recycling colonial dreams, but by empowering its youth to imagine, innovate and lead. Until society values thinkers, builders and creators as much as bureau-crats, the country will remain trapped in the past as the world moves ahead.

Zakir Ullah
Islamabad

Published in Dawn, November 6th, 2025