Hyderabad: It took 73-long years for a girl from the Hindu community in Pakistan to clear the most elite and prestigious cadre of the country's civil service — Central Superior Services. Central Superior Services (CSS) is equivalent to the Civil Services Examination (CSE) in India which is a nationwide competitive examination conducted by the Union Public Service Commission.
Every year less than two per cent of the candidates who appeared for the competitive test clear it in Pakistan. This year it was unique in the sense that among the qualified was a girl from Shikarpur, Dr Sana Ramchand Gulwani — the first Hindu girl to clear the Central Superior Services.
Dr Gulwani, who cleared the country's top public services exam in her first attempt, has secured her place on Sindh's rural seat in the Pakistan Administrative Service (PAS), formerly known as the District Management Group.
"This was my first attempt," Dr Gulwani told a national daily in Pakistan, adding, "I got what I wanted to achieve."
Although Dr Gulwani's parents had always wished for her to become a doctor, which she did. She has been a top student throughout her academic career, but that is not the career path she wanted for herself. Now both her parents are happy with her decision.
In 2016 "she graduated from the Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Medical University with a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) degree, and then went on to pursue her studies as a urologist and subsequently enrolled in the Federal Public Service Commission".
After scaling a rare feat, Dr Gulwani said that the CSS exam was easier compared to medical exams. The subjects she studied during her medical career were far more tricky. "I would advise all young students to be confident and dare to attempt any exam."
Growing up in a shantytown, Chak in Shikarpur, some 25 kilometres away from Sukkur city, she got her primary and secondary education from the local government school. "Do not undermine students of government schools. They can achieve anything that students from elite schools can," she told smiling.
Dr Gulwani, who now resides in Karachi, believes that appearing for the exam was a life-changing decision for her.
