Rationalise CSS exam system

The purpose of the Federal Public Service Commission, Government of Pakistan Islamabad besides selecting the suitable officers in BS/17 for the Civil Service of Pakistan is also to promote National Integrity by providing equal opportunities to candidates appearing for the examination from all the Federating units and Areas. The national integrity demands that the rules for conducting CSS examination must be fair and apply equally across the board to all candidates irrespective of their place of origin, language and educational background.
After 1973 Civil Service reforms, introduced by Mr. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto to inject equality in opportunity and natural justice a blanket approval was given in Qualifying Marks for the CSS examination, that any candidate of the this examination who obtains 25% of the marks in any subject (compulsory & optional) will be considered passed.
Later on, during Gen. Zia's, regime it was again decided that any candidate who obtains 33% in any subject (Compulsory & Optional) would be considered passed as it marked with the education system in vogue in Pakistan.
During 2003 Gen. Pervez Musharraf's time the policy of qualifying marks was further changed on the pretext that standard of education has improved and equal opportunities are available to the candidates in all the Federating units/Areas, irrespective of their place of origin and financial background. Moreover, it was also stressed that the standard of the English language of the CSS Officer is not up to the mark and the qualifying marks were fixed as under.
According to this rule a candidate to be declared as qualified/pass must fulfill the following criteria.
Secure at least 40% marks in compulsory subjects.
Secure at least 33% marks in optional subjects.
Secure at least 50% marks in aggregate of all subjects.
Secure at least 100 marks out of 300 marks in viva voce test.
Interestingly, the General Knowledge paper has been assessed collectively i.e. a candidate requires an aggregate of 120 Marks collectively not individually to clear in all the three subjects. This perhaps has been done to give the advantage to Arts candidates. Strangely enough, this principle or philosophy has not been applied when it comes to the subject of English where a candidate have to clear both the papers individually by scoring 40% marks in each paper. This anomaly certainly tilts the equilibrium in favour of candidates with background in Arts/English literature as compared to Science candidates who have been concentrating on the concept of the Science subject which is full of vocabulary rather than on the English grammar.