Three Candidates Pass KP Civil Judges Exam Out of 1,024 Applicants

News Desk
PESHAWAR: In a stark reflection of declining academic standards, only three out of 1,024 candidates have successfully cleared the written examination conducted by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Public Service Commission (KPPSC) for the posts of civil judge-cum-judicial magistrate and Alaqa Qazi. The results, announced on Wednesday, highlight a dismal pass rate for the 105 vacant Basic Pay Scale (BPS)-18 positions, which were originally advertised by the Peshawar High Court.
According to official data released by the commission, a total of 3,097 applications were initially received after the Peshawar High Court advertised the vacancies. While all applicants were provisionally admitted to the syllabus-based written examination, only 1,024 candidates actually appeared.
Out of these, the only three candidates who qualified the rigorous written test are Saba Rasool from South Waziristan, Abdullah Noor from Bajaur, and Sayed Zahid Hussain from Mardan. The English General and English Essay paper proved to be the biggest hurdle, where 875 candidates (85 percent) failed to secure passing marks.
This catastrophic result has raised serious alarms among legal experts and academics regarding the quality of legal education and English language proficiency in the province. With 102 vacancies remaining unfilled, the provincial judiciary faces a prolonged shortage of judicial officers, which threatens to worsen the massive backlog of cases pending in lower courts.
Observers note that the high failure rate in the English essay component underscores a systemic crisis in the higher education sector, particularly in professional degree programs.
The three successful candidates will now be called for psychological tests and viva-voce interviews before their final selection is confirmed.
Meanwhile, the Peshawar High Court and the KPPSC are expected to initiate a fresh recruitment drive to fill the remaining 102 vacant positions, amid growing calls for reforming the judicial examination syllabus and improving training standards for law graduates.