SC ruling on medical college admissions welcomed

Ruling end months of uncertainty for applicants, says the Young Doctors Association.

LAHORE: The Young Doctors Association (YDA) has welcomed the Supreme Court’s ruling on how admissions to public medical colleges are decided, saying it had ended months of uncertainty for applicants.

On September 6, the Lahore High Court ruled that University of Health Sciences must follow the formula prescribed by the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) in determining the merit list, which ranks prospective students according to their academic performance.

The PMDC formula gave 50 per cent weight to the entry test, 40 per cent to the FSc exams and 10 per cent to the matric exams.

But on Friday, the Supreme Court ruled that the UHS could keep using its old formula, which gives 30 per cent weight to the entry test and 70 per cent to the FSc exams.

“Students have never faced such uncertainty in the admissions process,” said Dr Salman Kazmi, general secretary of the YDA.

The process of admissions was delayed some three months while the case was in the courts and students protested on the streets against the PMDC formula.

“This verdict will calm the students. But the Punjab government and PMDC should normalise their relationship, for the students’ sake,” said Dr Kazmi.

He blamed the PMDC for the delay and accused it of taking bribes from private medical colleges to delay admissions to public colleges.

“During this delay private medical colleges have made around Rs50 million from selling prospectuses and taking tuition fees, which is a clear violation of the rules,” he said. Under PMDC rules, private colleges cannot ask students to deposit fees until final admissions to public colleges are decided.

PMDC Registrar Dr Nadeem dismissed the bribery accusation as baseless.

A UHS spokesman said that the 70-30 formula had been in use for the last 10 years and was designed after a series of detailed studies on the mindset of students and exam patterns. Between 1998 and 2000, the merit list was determined via a 60-40 formula, he said.

He accused the PMDC of concealing from the LHC judge the fact that it had allowed the provinces to draw up their own admissions formula. He said the PMDC secretary had presented documents to this effect to the Supreme Court. He believed that that was why the court had ruled against the PMDC formula.

The PMDC registrar admitted that during a PMDC meeting in 2007, the idea that the provinces could draw up their own formulas was approved, but insisted it had not been formalised as there was no notification to this effect.

He said the PMDC accepted the Supreme Court’s decision.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 24^th, 2010.