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My CSS-2014 Interview Experience

I appeared for CSS-2014 final Interview at Islamabad on 22nd of December 2014. The day was a cold one and sitting for around two hours in the Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC) waiting room was quite a test of nerves. Finally I was called in at around 11:30 am. The panel consisted of:

1. Maj Gen (retd) Niaz Muhammad Khattak
2. Mrs. Batool Iqbal Qureshi (Member and BS-22 Officer (Retd) of Secretariat Group)
3. Abdul Wajid Rana   (Memeber and Former Secretary Finance)
4. Mr. Ahmed Bakhsh Lehri Member (Former Chief Secretary Balochistan)

The Chairman welcomed me when i entered the room, he started discussion informally by asking question regarding my home district of Chitral it geography, Lawari tunnel, Kalash tribe and their culture, issue of conversion etc. The he referred me over to Madam Batool, who started asking question from my work experience and how my earlier organization i.e. Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (AKRSP) has been very effective in Hunza while at the same time its successes are limited in Baltistan and Chitral. I tried to justify some of the point, disagreed with Madam and also endorsed some of her observation. 

Then the watershed moment came when i handed over to Mr. Abdul Wajid Rana sab. He is a versatile bureaucrat having knowledge of every subject of CSS. From the very start he targeted my weakest point i.e. by asking about the very basic Economic Concept of National Income Accounting. I was rather not expecting this kind of basic question and had last time read the concept when i was in the first semester of Quaid Azam University (QAU) Islamabad pursuing my Masters in Economics back in 2008. 

List of the Question which were asked are as follow:

1.               Consumption and Expenditure approach to Income
2.               What are taxes on consumption
3.               What is protectionism? Why do developed countries undertake protectionism?
4.               What is current status of ECOTA and has there been any progress made by it ?
               ( I started to define “Quota” which is a concept related to Protectionism to which Rana Sb spelt the word out ---Embarrassed and dropped this question)
5.               Should we let go Kashmir? Why it important to Pakistan
6.                         Reasons of Terrorism and how to tackle it?
7.                        How the current government is taking on Terrorism? Has it failed?
8.                        Importance to study “History”? Why there is difference among historian?
9.                        What was Shimla Agreement and what are its pros and cons?
10.                   What do you know about RCD and what is current status? Some of its initiatives?
11.                   Questions regarding my home district its current security situation and development?


Overall the interview was somewhat unexpected and puzzling for me. I was emotional at some points and at other tried to be rational and logical. Need your prayers as results are very far away and waiting is truly tiresome. 


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