Thank you for your appreciation!
I will talk about three things in this post: misconceptions about IR, some basic subject selection tips, and your case

Misconception about IR
It will help you in Current Affairs and US history covers the history part: False, it does not help you in CA, in cat CA helps you in all the subjects. Watching news and reading paper will help in every subject, even EDS and Islamiat.
You need to have a lot of prior knowledge Knowledge can be build with a lot of readings, it depends on how much effort you want to put in
You need good expression and IR language True, again readings can help
You need a degree in IR false because people from diverse background do it

basic subject selection tips
Your background
Subjects that you like
Some of the mainstream subjects
Follow your heart

Your Case (actual post)
What I get from reading your post is that you don't want to go for subjects with too much competition and you want to play safe. Then you are not very confident on your own abilities based on your past performance. I know this happens with everyone, and we all feel like that we may not be good enough for something because of what we did in Past. However, that does not mean that what we do in future depends on it. To tell you the truth, I feel like that people who pass their 2nd and 3rd attempt don't do it solely based on their academic ability, but the CSS process grooms their personality. Before making a subject selection choice you need a confidence boost!
Just because you were not the brightest student in your university, it doesn't mean that you will be unable to do CSS. Furthermore, If only bright students were to pass CSS then all the gold medalist would have qualified. I know people who were average students, but they passed CSS, but gold medalist from their class were left out. Here come the biggest problem with CSS results, our flawed education system. You see, when people say that what you did before CSS matters, they don't only mean your performance or background, but how you used your brain. So many Doctors and Engineers qualify because they have a habit of studying a lot from FCS/A levels. They are not doing anything CSS specific, like we social sciences students do, but they are constantly using their brain, and mostly outside classes, in entrepreneurship and clubs and societies. The point is that more than the knowledge of a subject, a critical mind and hardworking routine matters
I would also add that don't take CSS as you take your university exams. In conclusion you can do well in IR and Ilaw, even if you did not do well in them in University

Second point: competition
Now it is true that competition can make things hard, but it doesn't make a subject less hard. You still have to fulfill all the requirements of the subject to pass. And competition vary from year to year, 2017 was an year when IR was hit really hard, but after that it has been fairly scoring. Competition can be good as well, as you will find a lot more resources and books on IR than other subjects

What to do?
First of all, whatever decision you make, it has to be yours. Poli Sci or IR, they will require the same amount of effort because they are making optional subjects more analytical
Trends are not reliable because they vary every year
CSP advice is also unreliable because only FPSC knows whats going on

Best way to make a decision is to see how your brain works. Open past papers and see which questions you are most comfortable in answering. Look at the past papers and the syllabus and see if they fit your mind. I was advice to go for IL and I wanted philosophy, and as an aspirant without much confidence I went for ILaw. Though I love the suject, but I am more of an opinion type of person, and phil would have suited me

So see which subjects and their past papers suit your personality, as css is an exam of your personality!

- Hope this helps

Thank you so much for such a detailed response. I really appreciate that.
I am quiet confident that I can do CSS. I just wanted to take calculated decisions since I am 28 already. This would be my first attempt and I'd only have one attempt left after this one, obviously if I am unable to pass the 2020 exams. That is why I wanted to choose a subject which'll require me relatively less effort. But I got your point and I'll ponder over it.

I have a couple of more questions in my mind so I'll just share those with you and you can reply whenever it suits you. altogether or one by one. I just don't have many people around me who can guide me. That's why I am bugging you.

I was just a little bit concerned because I sometimes feel that I don't have enough time for preparation. I've just started like a week ago. I am doing a 7 hours a day, 5 days a week job. But I am able to allocate minimum 7 hours daily and more on my off days which are two in a week. I'll be taking leaves from 1st January onward. My plan is to cover the syllabus maximum by the mid of November and allocate the last 2 months for mocs and revision.
I have started GSA and it's already consuming a lot of time since I have a social sciences background and I've never studies science, not even in Matric.
As I've read your other posts where you've sharing strategies to cover syllabus and you suggest to read more and more. I have nothing against reading a lot. In fact I want to read as many resources and as many books as possible. But I don't believe I have the time in hand to read 5 different books (although I want to) since it would take almost a month for each subject (as far as I believe). I wish I'd have started preparation in January this year.

So keeping in view my scenario, how would you suggest me to go about covering the syllabus? How many resources I should consult? How much time should I allocate to each subject?

One thing more. I see you stress a lot on reading Dawn news. I am reading newspapers and reading columns since I was like 12,13 years old. I have been reading Dawn for the last two years. I used to read most of the opinions and editorials but again I am unsure about how that can help me since I don't remember what I've read and never made notes of those either. Please guide me about it.

I know I should've been brief. Sorry about that.

Reading
Okay I see, first of all the reading can be converted into listening. You can just open the pdf in the internet explorer and listen to it. You will get comfortable to a robotic voice in a while
There are a lot of book reviews and summaries that can be consulted
If I find any then I will paste them here
You can switch to YouTube lectures as well
Working person
People who work have a different way to study than those who don't have a job
Most of the advice that I give suits someone who is a fresh graduate
There are a lot of study videos on YT and Study blogs on tumblr that advice on how to study if you are working. Internet is your best friend
YT can be watched at 2x to save time
About reading a bunch of books
I advice books because this is a personal preference
one way to shorten it is to use google scholar and read from pdfs found there
I personally like books
NewsPaper
Dawn must be read in order to build analysis and not only knowledge. You will have the analytical ability, now all you need are facts. There are a lot of websites that have brief notes on it like the csstimes

Whatever I advice is based on my personal experience and that is not the only way to so it. A lot of people use the standard books in market and pass the exam, but I prefer quality content.

I am not the best person to advice you on this because I didn't have a job when I was doing CSS, so you must ask someone else. I would suggest making a new tread or looking at CSS Facebook groups. Standard advice can be found on tumblr and youtube (try crash course study skills)

I am so sorry that I can't be much of help for you.

You don't have to apologize for asking for advice

These threads may help
http://www.cssforum.com.pk/beginners...s-css-job.html
http://www.cssforum.com.pk/beginners...along-job.html
http://www.cssforum.com.pk/beginners...2-css-job.html

There are a lot of old threads, do have a look at them
Also have a look at this blog https://cssstudy.tumblr.com/