The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has ordered the Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC) to resolve the problems faced by the students regarding the Medical and Dental College Admission Test (MDCAT) 2020.
IHC Chief Justice (CJ) Athar Minallah, during the hearing regarding the violations of the PMC, directed the students to take the matter up with the PMC in order to have their objections heard.
The students were protesting against the alleged discrepancies in the 2020 entry test, including out-of-syllabus questions.
The test had been held on November 29, 2020, with a secondary test on December 13 for those who missed the first one due to coronavirus related issues.
The counsel for the students had argued that carrying out exams was not in the domain of the federal government and was a subject of the provincial government, but the IHC CJ had refuted this claim.
It is pertinent to mention here that the Sindh government has fully backed the students and has demanded permission to conduct an entry test for the local medical and dental colleges by itself.
Justice Minallah had stated regulatory authorities do not fall under the provincial domain. He then ordered the PMC to resolve the complaints of the students.
The demands of the candidates have not been unified as yet, wherein some candidates are calling for grace marks, while others demand the passing grade be reduced from 60 per cent to 50 per cent, while others demand the answer keys be shared and a rechecking take place.
Candidate Abdul Hadi demanded the release of the report of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) probe into the MDCAT paper leak. The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) had also demanded the release of the FIA probe.
The protesters have also taken to social media to vent their anger against the PMC.
Human rights activist Jibran Nasir sided with the protesting students and said the PMC had deleted 14 MDCAT questions after admitting they were ambiguous.
“Those [ambiguous] questions were 7% of the test. Also, for candidates based in Sindh, at least 18 questions were out of the syllabus. That is another 9% of the test.
“This shows incompetence and shameful conduct by PMC’s academic board of not applying their mind at all,” he had said in a tweet.
Hope pmc will do best in 2021, new council recomendation are awesome
Hopefully pmc understand and don’t do these blunders with mdcat 2021.