Hindu woman in Pakistan clears prestigious Central Superior Services examination

In a first, a Hindu woman in Pakistan has passed the country's prestigious Central Superior Services (CSS) examination and selected for the elite Pakistan Administrative Services (PAS).

Sana Ramchand is an MBBS doctor, hailing from rural area of Shikarpur district in Sindh province, which has the largest Hindu population in Pakistan.

She is one of 221 candidates who were declared successful in the CSS exam out of 18,553 who had appeared in the written tests. The final selection has been made after an elaborate medical, psychological and oral tests.

The groups are allotted at the last stage when final merit is determined.

After the result, Ramchand tweeted, Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh and added I'm pleased to share that by the grace of ALLAH ALMIGHTY, I have cleared the CSS 2020 and been allocated to PAS. All credit goes to my parents.

The pass percentage in the latest CSS has been less than 2 per cent which shows that tough competition as well as the rigorous standards applied by the Federal Public Service Commission, which is responsible for these recruitments.

The PAS is always the top of the groups often followed by Pakistan Police Services and Foreign Services of Pakistan and others. Those allotted PAS are appointed Assistant Commissioners and later promoted District Commissioners, the powerful administrator controlling the districts since the British Raj.

BBC Urdu reported that Ramchand is the first Hindu woman who had been selected for PAS after passing the CSS examination.

Though a total of 79 women made it to the final list and have been allotted various groups including PAS. The topper is also a woman, Maheen Hassan, who was also allotted PAS.

Ramchand did her MBBS from Chandka Medical College in her home Sindh province and completed her house job in the Civil Hospital Karachi. She is currently doing FCPS from Sindh Institute of Urology and Transparent and soon would become a qualified surgeon.

Several people, including some political leaders, congratulated her on social media for her achievement.

Senior leader of Pakistan People Party, Farhatullah Babar, congratulated her. Congratulations to Dr Sana Ramchand. She has done proud the Hindu community of Pakistan, indeed the whole country, he tweeted.

A social media user, Sumeet Rathore, tweeted: Amidst all the unusual news every day, let's congratulate Dr #SanaRamchand the first Hindu female for successfully qualifying #CSS2020Exam, and appointed as an Assistant CommissionerProud for All the Hindu Community.