English Essay is the one CSS paper with no MCQs and no fixed content. FPSC's syllabus for it is two sentences: write one or more essays in English from a wide choice of topics, and show comprehensive, research-based knowledge, articulation, expression and technical treatment. Everything else you learn from the papers themselves.
This guide reads all eleven papers from 2016 to 2026, ten topics each, 110 in all. Every paper is on our English Essay past papers page, and the English Essay syllabus page has FPSC's full instruction.
Key takeaways
- Every paper gives ten topics; you write one essay of 2,500 to 3,000 words, with an outline, in three hours.
- About one topic in five is directly about Pakistan (24 of 110): governance, economy, CPEC, Kashmir, language.
- Gender and women appear in seven of the eleven papers; globalization in five, and CPEC and "new war fronts" twice each.
- Every paper has a few one-line quotations or proverbs that need a thesis of your own.
What the paper asks you to write
The instruction has barely changed in eleven years. In 2026 it read: "Prepare an outline and write a comprehensive essay (2500 – 3000 words) on any one of the given topics. You are expected to comprehend the subject issue correctly and articulate your stance with valid arguments and clear ideas duly supported by relevant data and examples." Earlier papers also asked you to use different forms of discourse, such as exposition and argument.
So the paper rewards three things: a clear stance, an outline that holds it up, and evidence. The topic only decides where the evidence comes from.
The kinds of topic FPSC sets
Grouped roughly by theme, the 110 topics fall into a handful of families. A topic can belong to more than one.
Pakistan's governance, politics and society. "Crisis of good governance in Pakistan: Need for reforms and institution building" (2016), "Democracy in Pakistan: Hopes and Hurdles" (2018), "Polarized politics: the issues and challenges of democracy in Pakistan" (2020), "Dynastic politics is the worst mockery of democracy" (2025), "Local Government System: the missing link in Pakistan's governance structure" (2026).
Pakistan's economy. "Promotion of tax culture in Pakistan" (2016), "Pakistan's informal economy: the way forward" (2020), "IMF bailouts: roads to stability or recipes for disaster" (2020), "Pathways to Pakistan's Prosperity" (2024), "Revitalising agriculture sector of Pakistan" (2026).
World politics and Pakistan's place in it. CPEC appears twice (2018, 2024), "new war fronts" twice (2019, 2024), and recent papers ask about BRICS (2024), the Hamas-Israel conflict (2025) and the "Emerging Multipolar World Order" (2026).
Gender and women. Seven papers have a topic on women, feminism or gender equality: 2016, 2017, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2025. The pairing of "Frailty, thy name is woman" (2016) with "Frailty is no more the name of Woman" (2025) shows how FPSC can return to the same idea from the other side.
Technology, media and education. Social media (2018, 2022), information technology (2019), Pakistan's digital readiness (2020), artificial intelligence (2024), cyber security (2026), and education in several papers, from "Higher Education in Pakistan: Ills and Remedies" (2018) to "Classrooms decide the future of the nation" (2019).
Environment and resources. Water (2016, 2021), global warming (2018), recycling (2023), fossil fuels (2024), reforestation (2025).
Quotations and abstract ideas. Every paper has a few: "Truth is lived, not taught" (2019), "Imagination is more important than knowledge" (2022), "The fool speaks, and the wise listens" (2023), "Brains, like hearts, go where they are appreciated" (2025). These have no ready-made content; you have to build an argument from your own reading.
The 2026 topics
- Youth Bulge: a demographic dividend or a demographic bomb?
- Local Government System: the missing link in Pakistan's governance structure.
- Cyber Security as the new national security frontier.
- Emerging Multipolar World Order: opportunities and risks for Pakistan.
- The one who controls the sea, rules the world.
- There is nothing so likely to produce peace as to be well prepared to meet an enemy.
- Revitalising agriculture sector of Pakistan.
- Countering the growing menace of beggary.
- Politicisation of sports - a new challenge.
- Nations have no permanent friends and enemies, they have only permanent interests.
Every year's list is on its paper page: 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026.
How to prepare
- Build a bank of evidence by family, not by topic. You cannot predict the topic, but you can predict the families above. For each, keep facts, figures and examples you could use in several essays.
- Outline old topics, fast. Take three topics from a past paper, give yourself 15 minutes each, and write only the outline: thesis, the main arguments, the counter-argument. This is the skill the exam tests first.
- Write two or three full essays under time. Three hours for a 2,500-word essay with an outline is tighter than it sounds. Write at least a few in one sitting before the exam.
- Practice the quotation topics. They are where a prepared candidate stands out, because the essay has to make its own case.
For a wider method that works for every CSS paper, see how to use CSS past papers.
Frequently asked questions
One. Every paper from 2016 to 2026 gives ten topics and asks for an essay on any one of them.
No. It is the only compulsory paper without them.
Exact topics rarely do, but themes return often: gender, governance, CPEC, globalization and new forms of conflict all appear in several years.
FPSC does not set a length. The outline should show your thesis and the line of argument at a glance, so the examiner can follow the essay before reading it.