Students challenge MDCAT test results

Students on Tuesday challenged the Medical and Dental College Admission Test (MDCAT) results in the Lahore High Court Rawalpindi bench.

On a petition of prospective medicals students, the court issued notices to the testing company, the Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC) and the University of Health Sciences Lahore and sought replies from respondents on October 5.

Sardar Abdul Razaaq filed the petition on behalf of the students, who have taken the plea that the procedure followed, this time around, for the medical test was illegal.

The petitioners said that section 18 of PMC Act 2020 binds the conducting of tests across the country on the same date. However, they said, entrance tests were conducted online from August 30 to September 30 this year.

The petitioners said that all candidates in the same hall were given separate questions. They have alleged that some favourite candidates were given easy questions while the rest got out-of-syllabus questions.

The applicants said that there were poor arrangements in the test hall as many students complained about computer system and power supply breakdown.

Read More: MDCAT deemed mandatory for admission to medical colleges

The petitioners alleged favourite students completed their tests within an hour, while others could not do it within the prescribed three hours' time. The petition said that a huge number of students got failed in the final results after which countrywide protests started.

The petitioners alleged that the contract given to the testing service was also illegal. Each student was charged Rs6,000 and some 200,000 candidates appeared in the entrance test across the country.

It said that the company given the contract was not registered at that time and an alleged corruption worth billions of rupees has been committed.

The petition has sought to declare the test conducted by the testing company and the contract illegal.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 29^th, 2021.