The entry test or SAT II requirement is laid out in the PMDC regulations of 2003 and 2010. The University of Health Sciences (UHS) does not register any candidate who does not fulfil this criterion, said a university spokesman.
Sources in the Economic Affairs Division (EAD) and the Higher Education Commission (HEC) told The Express Tribune that senior officials in both departments pushed for the exemption. Once it was granted, relatives of those officials ended up gaining admission to the best medical schools in Pakistan, said the sources.
Every year, hundreds of dual nationals and foreigners apply for seats in Pakistani schools. The HEC reviews the applications for medical and engineering colleges on self-finance basis. The EAD reviews applications for medical and engineering colleges under the Pakistan Technical Assistance Programme (PTAP), under which medical and engineering school places are offered to 47 nominees from developing countries for subsidised fees. The aim of this programme is to earn the goodwill of these developing countries and improve Pakistan’s image.
Foreign and dual national applicants are required under the rules to have had 12 years of schooling in their country and to have sat three SAT II subject exams with a minimum score of 550 each. The Lahore High Court, in November 2010, directed that dual nationals who sit the intermediate exams or equivalent from Pakistan also be considered eligible. The LHC did not cancel the SAT II or entry test requirement.
The EAD, in a letter dated July 16, 2010, wrote to the PMDC asking that the SAT II or entry test requirement be waived for the 2010-2011 session. The letter, available with The Express Tribune, states that candidates were complaining that they couldn’t sit the SAT II exams since it was due to be held in October while the admissions deadline for medical colleges was August 20.
On September 15, the PMDC’s Executive Council allowed the EAD to admit foreign or dual national students who could not sit the SAT II or entry test. On November 30, the EAD circulated a letter stating that foreign students had been exempted from the SAT II or entry test requirement for one time.
One Pakistani-American applicant who wished not to be named said he’d been denied admission to Pakistani medical colleges despite his high scores in the three SAT II subject tests. He said that applicants were expected to sit the SAT II test a year before they applied, so the EAD’s claim that students couldn’t sit the test because they were in October was not justified. He said the EAD had told him that students who had not given the SAT II exams were preferred over those who had.
A UHS spokesman told The Express Tribune that the university had directed all medical colleges not to admit foreign or dual national students who did not fulfil the SAT II or entry test requirement. He said that almost all admissions to public medical colleges to seats reserved for foreigners in 2010 had been made in violation of the PMDC rules of 2003 and 2010. He said that the UHS would not register these candidates for the MBBS examinations, nor award them degrees.
EAD official Muteebul Rehman said that the PMDC had only introduced the SAT II or entry test requirement for applicants under PTAP this year, and the condition had not been in place in previous years. His statement contradicted PMDC rules and regulations.
PMDC President Dr Sibtul Hasnain expressed surprise that the council had allowed the exemption. He said that the SAT II test was mandatory for foreign applicants, but refused to comment on the PMDC letter allowing the exemption.
There are 384 medical, dental, pharmacology and engineering seats available to foreigners and dual nationals, including 72 MBBS and 13 BDS seats under PTAP in 15 Punjab colleges.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 7th, 2011.
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