I suck at Urdu. I even attempted Islamiat in English. But i agree with RoadBlock here.

One, our bureaucracy is supposed to 'serve' a nation 60% of which live for less Rs. 200 a day. How many of these poor do you expect to know English? Does a Bureaucrat require English to serve the nation and the people? definitely not.

Agreed that English is the language of knowledge. Good enough. Lets have English proficient scientists and engineers and doctors but a civil servant does not require English to serve the nation.

Secondly, how much of the above mentioned 60% people do you guess will be able to get an 'English' education? not much i guess. Except for the odd case, those of us who are educated in 'English' come from middle to upper classes. so how do you expect the middle class and upper class to know the problems of the 60%, feel for them and work for them?

I will give my humble suggestion here:

All candidates should have choice to attempt All papers in Urdu or English, except precis and composition. Yes I am saying that there should be choice for essay in English or Urdu too. Essay is meant to convey that an aspirant can present his ideas in a coherent manner. English is not required for that.

And those who do not appear in essay in English should not be allowed to join Foreign Services and we can hide our 'complex' that we are a 'Urdu' speaking nation.

Way to go RoadBlock...