The government has set rolling the governance reforms by raising the upper age limit for Central Superior Services (CSS) applicants to facilitate entry of more mature, experienced and qualified recruits/officers.
The federal cabinet had, in its meeting on July 15 in Lahore, sanctioned an increase in upper age limit from 28 to 30 years for admission to CSS examination.
The need for enhancing the upper age limit became mandatory since the government had increased the higher education from 16 to 18 years. Bachelor’s degree had been a two-year programme but at present it is a four-year programme.
An official source said “the government wants to induct professionally qualified people in the accounts and audit, tax and revenue and other technical departments, as earlier mainly arts graduates were scoring more marks by selecting simple subjects which the graduates with professional education find difficult to opt”.
Enhancement in the age limit for CSS examination was one of the recommendations of the governance reforms finalised by the Ministry of Planning, Development and Reforms with the assistance of the UNDP last year. Both the institutions worked for the ‘Reform and Innovation in Government for High Performance’ programme under the Vision 2025.
The programme focused on a number of initiatives seeking to build capacity and improve performance in the public sector while strengthening the relationship between the government and citizens, as prioritised by the Vision 2025.
The programme conducted extensive research and analysis as well as a series of consultations culminating in the Governance Forum 2015 held in December 2015. These consultations engaged hundreds of civil servants, political leaders, civil society representatives, academics and journalists to shape the reforms agenda through active participation of the Establishment Division, Finance Division Federal Public Service Commission and National School of Public Policy.
This agenda included proposals to introduce a pre-exam screening test to raise the quality of applications and reduce error-rate in processing them; allow specialised group intakes to rationalise career-paths; and raising the age-ceiling for Central Superior Services (CSS) applicants to facilitate the entry of more mature, experienced and qualified recruits.
Experts in the Planning Commission hoped that these reforms would help attract candidates with prior work experience in the private sector or those who have studied and worked abroad. “Such aspirants, if selected, will be able to offer fresh perspectives, ideas and capabilities to the public sector,” they said.
Similarly, in some areas of Pakistan, poverty and lack of educational facilities mean holding back talented candidates who fail to complete their required 16 years of schooling by the time they are 28. Increasing the upper age limit to 30 years will promote inclusiveness and equality of opportunity across geographical and socio-economic divides by ensuring these youths have a level playing field to compete.