The Lahore High Court on Tuesday dismissed the petitions filed by medical students who had challenged the weight Pakistan Medical and Dental Council places on the general entrance test while considering students for admission to medical colleges across the country.
However, the bench asked the council and the University of Health Sciences (UHS) to review their admission criteria from next session. The bench held that at this stage merit lists, which had been stayed by the court, could not be cancelled because the students would suffer.
The petitioners had challenged the mandatory entrance test conducted by the UHS. The petitioners’ counsel had asked the court that entrance test should not be given more than 30 per cent weight during the admission process.
Following the court’s dismissal of the challenge the University of Health Sciences (UHS) displayed lists of successful candidates in 11 public sector medical colleges of the Punjab.
The students have been selected on open merit and against seats reserved for the disabled and under-developed districts.
A bench headed by Justice Chaudhry Shahid Saeed, had barred the UHS from displaying the lists before the court’s verdict.
A UHS spokesman said that this year’s merit was higher than last year. A total of 6,717 applications were received, from October 5 to October 15, against a total of 2,923 seats. Of them 2,842 were open merit seat, 61 were reserved for under-developed districts and 20 for disabled candidates.
The spokesman said that 76 candidates applied against the 20 seats reserved for disabled students and 578 candidates applied for the 61 seats reserved for students of six under-developed districts of the Punjab. These include Muzaffargarh, Rajanpur, Lodhran, Bhakkar, Layyah and DG Khan.
Classes for this year’s session will commence on November 28. The first merit list for Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) will be displayed on December 22 with dental college sessions starting January 9, 2012.
The lists were prepared giving 10 per cent weight to matriculation, 40 per cent to intermediate and 50 per cent to the medical entrance test marks.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 16th, 2011.
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the same formula for medical colleges aptitude test is being followed in Sindh for quiet sometime..then what is the reason for protest??and this criteria for admission is widely accepted and fair too..