THIS is apropos of Abdul Saboor Nizamani’s letter ‘CSS exam: official view’ (June 15). In the letter the official version is reported by a senior and responsible FPSC official about the CSS examinations.

The writer has tried to prove the existence of a fair and transparent mechanism of the CSS exams by providing an overview of the examination criterion which is totally different from reality. We have no objection regarding the three tests conducted by the FPSC for this competitive examination and we also strongly support their views regarding equal opportunity in this examination.

However, we do not agree with his point of view regarding the fairness, merit and transparency in this examination. As I appeared in CSS 2009 examinations, with roll number 1643, I obtained 669 marks but was declared fail in just one compulsory paper by just six marks. In one of optional subjects, Islamic History, I obtained 152 marks out of 200.

The first attempt of the CSS was both shocking and encouraging for me because my marks were excellent and I just failed by a narrow margin, but I did not lose hope and appeared in CSS 2010. In this attempt in my optional subjects the score was very low, specially in Islamic History: just 80 out of 200 marks as compared to the first one: 152 out of 200 marks.

I did not lose hope and appeared again and obtained 693 marks. I was declared fail in the same  compulsory paper; this time just by three marks.

I appeal to the FPSC chairman to reform this institute by reshaping its evaluation policy.

IRFAN AHMED PANHWERKhairpur