The letter (a copy is available to the Tribune) states that the matter was not discussed with the PMDC members. It was not on the agenda of the 117th meeting of the council, held on November 8, 2010, and the minutes of the meeting sent to the UHS on November 15 do not mention it.
According to PMDC rules, such decisions have to be on the agenda of the meeting and be discussed in the meeting. UHS was surprised by the PMDC’s decision, the letter added.
To make matters worse, some PMDC officials and candidates who took the NEB exam held on December 19 by the Dow have challenged the integrity of the examination process. Allegations are flying around that some of the successful candidates paid between Rs400,000 to Rs800,00 to get a passing grade on their theory paper.
The NEB exam of December 19 had 743 candidates who sat for the theory paper and results released on December 26 reveal that only 82 have been declared eligible for the clinical examination to be held on January 2 at the Rawalpindi Medical College.
Muhammad Iftikhar, a candidate who failed, claimed that it was because he could not afford to shell out Rs400,000. Iftikhar, who studied for his MBBS in China, further alleged that some of his friends had paid the amount and cleared their papers.
A candidate from South Punjab, speaking on the condition of anonymity, admitted paying Rs500,000 to purchase the objective part of the examination.
Dr Rehman, hailing from Sialkot, said the subjective part was quite easy while the objective part was challenging. He said he would move to Australia after his specialisation.
The PMDC handed over the responsibility for the NEB to the UHS following allegations that some doctors who had failed the exam had been registered and that the examination papers had been leaked. “The reports were very damaging. Some said that registration certificates were being issued for Rs2 million,” said a PMDC official.
When PMDC conducted the NEB exam in 2009, 404 medical graduates sat it and 118 passed - a 29.2 per cent pass rate. When the UHS conducted the NEB for two years the pass rates were drastically lower. Of the 526 MBBS graduates that sat for the exam in winter 2009, only 52 passed. The pass rate was 9.88 percent. The summer 2010 exam had a pass rate of 3.55 percent. This time around only 18 out of total of 507 graduates sailed through.
PMDC president Professor Dr Sibtul Hasnain and DUHS vice-chancellor Prof Dr Masood Hameed Khan were unavailable for their comments.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 29th, 2010.
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