Islamabad High Court dismissed a petition seeking to restrain the Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC) from conducting fresh examinations of the Central Superior Services (CSS or civil service) before releasing the results of 2024 exams.
Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani announced the verdict which was earlier reserved after hearing arguments in a petition filed by several candidates of the CSS exams. FPSC Chairman Akhtar Nawaz Satti and Additional Attorney General Munawar Iqbal Dogal appeared before the court. At the outset of hearing, the court questioned the FPSC chairman that the matter was sent to you so that you could look at it from your angle.
There are 3761 candidates who participated in the 2024 exams and are now participating in the 2025 exams, too. The FPSC chairman said that the commission rejected the petitioners’ application because they will not run out of chances even after the 2025 exams. One petitioner has already availed all chances and is not an affected.
Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani asked whether the commission has ever announced any result after the next CSS exams. The chairman replied that no, it has never been done. The 3761 candidates waiting for the results of the 2024 exams are mostly repeaters, he said. He said that 88 halls have been booked for upcoming exams across the country and all the relevant papers have also been sent.
Additional Attorney General Munawar Iqbal Dogal said that if these exams were postponed, it will also create problems for the secrecy, adding that the law gives the commission authority to do this. Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani remarked that in this way, then the commission will not give the results in 2025 or 2026. The additional attorney general said that no, it is not like that.
The court remarked that if the commission had announced the results even a week ago, these petitioners would not be before us today. Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani asked what is the cost of a CSS exam? The chairman replied that he doesn’t have any specific figures in this regard. The additional attorney general said that the exams were going to start from February 15, the law allows FPSC to conduct the next exam if the previous result was not released.
The court remarked that if the results had been announced 15 days ago, these students would not have been standing here. The students should have also seen in which subject they are weak, so they should change it. The court said that the students were also deprived of the right to choose the subject. Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani said that when he summoned the chairman, it seemed that he would say that they were announcing the results the very next day.
“If you had said today that we are announcing the results, we would have disposed of the application.” The chairman said that FPSC was conducting as many as nine exams in a year, including CSS. He said that 10 to 15 percent of the exams in FPSC were CSS and the remaining 85 percent were other exams. “I am afraid that in the coming days some people will come to us and say that they have become overage,” he said.
“We will announce results of the 2024 CSS exams in the last week of April,” the chairman told the court. After hearing the arguments, the high court earlier reserved the verdict on the petition and later dismissed the case while announcing the verdict.
