IHC seeks response from PMDC over MDCAT plea

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court on Thursday issued notices to the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) and Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Medical University in response to a petition challenging the Medical and Dental Colleges Admission Test (MDCAT) held last month.

Justice Arbab Muhammad Tahir asked the PMDC and the medical university to submit their response by Oct 10, asking if the PMDC had constituted any committee to probe the allegations levelled by students regarding anomalies and errors in the exam. The students also claimed that there were 30 out of the syllabus questions in the test as well as anomalies in the answer key. The court also asked what was the stance of Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Medical University regarding the allegations and sought a reply by the next date of hearing, which is October 10.

It is worth mentioning that at least 22,000 candidates appeared in MDCAT conducted by SZABMU on September 22 and a number of them afterwards complained that there were issues with the exam, for instance, its difficulty level, errors, and anomalies.

The petitioners, through their instant petitions, requested the court to declare MDCAT illegal, unlawful, and contrary to the PMDC rules. They sought a further direction that respondents be directed to re-take the MDCAT without any additional charges.

During the hearing, the counsels argued that the university refused to upload the question paper and the students were compelled to invoke the jurisdiction of the high court. Pursuant to the directions of the court order Sept 27, the question paper was uploaded and the students observed serious anomalies in the question paper and answer keys. It has surfaced that 30 questions included in the question paper were out of the syllabus, they argued.

The IHC issued notices to the PMDC and the university to respond to whether any committee was constituted by the PMDC to probe the allegations levelled by the students, particularly the inclusion of 30 out of syllabus questions and anomaly in the question paper and answer keys.

The court said if there was a probe then what recommendations were made and implemented, and if not, what were the reasons?

Advocate Supreme Court Afnan Karim Kundi, while talking to Dawn, said MDCAT did not reflect the competence level of candidates. He said the test held in Punjab was quite easy due to which all the seats of colleges, especially private colleges, would be bagged by the candidates who appeared in Punjab. “There were around 30 questions which could not be solved by the students of intermediate. I have demanded that the candidates should not suffer at all,” he said.

A day earlier, the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council decided to conduct an independent analysis of the test and give the same questions to all candidates from across the country to bring uniformity to the difficulty level next year.

Published in Dawn, October 4th, 2024