Medical students call for fresh tests

Islamabad : The students have rejected the recent countywide Medical and Dental Colleges Admission Test (MDCAT) over 'faulty' results and demanded fresh, single-day test.

While appealing to the chief justice of Pakistan to take a suo moto notice of the MDCAT irregularities for corrective measures, they warned that they would march on D Chowk in Islamabad's Red Zone against the 'injustice' meted out to them by the Pakistan Medical Commission.

Student Asim Farmanullah told ‘The News’ that the faulty results had put the credibility of both MDCAT and PMC at stake.

He said the PMC emailed test results to several students on Saturday morning with the obtained marks being more than the total marks.

“The PMC’s claim that the fault was caused by a system error rendered the entire test exercise controversial,” he said.

The student suspected that corruption was to blame for the MDCAT controversy.

Another student, Rizwa, complained that ironically, the PMC awarded the computer-based MDCAT contract to a company, which was registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan after the expiry of the date to submit applications for the contract.

Student Huda said the PMC fixed Rs6,000 fee for the students to sit the MDCAT and thus, earning millions of rupees just to offer unreasonably high salaries and fringe benefits to own employees.

She said the Transparency International Pakistan (TIP) had also pointed out the violation of the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority rules during the award of the MDCAT contract and the advance payment to the company SOAR Testing and Evaluation Platform, which was engaged for the test arrangements under controversial circumstances.

The student warned that she along with other students would protest at D Chowk against the MDCAT irregularities and demand fresh test to claim the ‘right’.

She also appealed to the Supreme Court chief justice to take a suo moto notice of the matter to the relief of troubled students by ordering corrective measures.