The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday reserved its verdict on a petition seeking to restrain the Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC) from conducting fresh examinations before releasing the CSS 2024 results.
Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani reserved the verdict after hearing the arguments in a petition filed by several candidates of CSS exams. The FPSC’s Chairman Lt. Gen. (reted) Akhtar Nawaz Sattai and Additional Attorney General Munawar Dogal appeared before the court.
At the outset of hearing, the court inquired that 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.
The FPSC Chairman said that we rejected the petitioners’ application because the petitioners will not run out of chances even after the 2025 exams. One petitioner has already availed all chances and is not affected.
Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani asked whether commission has ever announced any results after the next CSS exams.
The Chairman FPSC replied that no, it has never been done. The 3761 candidates waiting for the results of the 2024 exams who are also going to take the current exams are mostly repeaters, he said.
He said that 88 halls have been booked across the country and all the relevant papers have also been sent.
Additional Attorney General Munawar Iqbal Dogal said that if these exams are postponed, it will also create problems for the secrecy, adding that the law gives the commission authority to do this.
Justice Kayani remarked that in this way, then you will not give the results in 2025 or 2026. Additional Attorney General said that no, it is not like that. The court remarked that if you 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 FPSC replied that I do not have any specific figures in this regard.
Additional Attorney General Munawar Iqbal Dogal said that the exams are going to start from February 15, the law allows the FPSC to conduct the next exam if the previous result is not released.
Justice Kayani 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. When I summoned the chairman, it seemed that he would say that we are announcing the results tomorrow. If you had said today that we are announcing the results, we would have disposed of the application.
The FPSC chairman said that FPSC is conducting 9 exams in a year, including CSS. Ten to fifteen percent of the exams in FPSC are CSS and the remaining 85 percent are 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.
Chairman FPSC said that we will announce the results of the 2024 CSS exams in the last week of April.
After hearing arguments, the court reserved the verdict on the petition.