Private sector has an edge over government's civil service in attracting brilliant and outstanding students looking for paying jobs with generous perks.
In an interview to APP, Director General, Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC), Ameer Ali Arain acknowledged that candidates eligible for government civil service are more inclined towards joining private sector, as it offers more attractive packages and incentives.
The civil service is losing some of its shine and appearing for CSS exams is a less attractive option for outstanding graduates.
They look out for lucrative positions in multinationals and private ventures, he said with concern. The waning power of civil service officers after the introduction of local governments run by elected Nazims, is another reason for lack of interest of candidates.
Due to unavailability of suitable candidates for the past three years, the FPSC has had to carry over vacant seats to the following year and almost all government departments are facing a shortage of qualified young officers.
Last year, the establishment division reported 299 vacancies to be filled on the basis of competitive examination in various occupational groups, but the commission could find only 189 appropriate candidates, leaving 110 seats vacant. Further, during the competitive examination of 2006, the FPSC had to leave 47 vacancies for the following year while in 2005, 25 seats were not filled.
According to the annual report for the competitive exam of 2006, 22 seats of urban Sindh remained vacant while 17 of rural Sindh, six of Azad Jammu and Kashmir and two of Balochistan also remained vacant. The commission got the required number of qualified candidates for the seats allotted to Punjab and NWFP. Sensing the competition ahead with the private sector, FPSC is thinking about innovation.
As one of the steps, FPSC is arranging career-counselling sessions for the principals and lecturers of colleges and universities across the country.
The teachers in turn will prepare their students for the exams held by FPSC to select candidates for the Civil Superior Services (CSS). Further, FPSC came up with the plan of counseling sessions last year. With an idea to help enhance the capabilities of students who were appearing in the exams held once a year.
As the idea of counseling sessions remained a success, the DG, FPSC said they want to hold the sessions again this year. Therefore, the commission hopes that students will be better prepared for the exams, which are taken by thousands of students.
Only more than one hundred candidates ultimately making to the top earning positions in foreign service, police, district management and other federal government ministries and departments. Ameer Ali further denied that FPSC has made any change in the format of question papers. But they made an alteration last year adding multi-choice questions of 20 marks in papers to better gauge the abilities of candidates. He also denied impression that there was decline in CSS results. Because, 16.6 percent of students were declared successful in CSS exam in 2008 as compared to only 6.2 percent in 2007.