KARACHI: On Wednesday, the Sindh High Court halted the Medical and Dental College Admission Test (MDCAT) results and prevented the authorities from processing admissions based only on the exam results.
The chief secretary was also instructed by a two-judge bench made up of Justice Salahuddin Panhwar and Justice Amjad Ali Sahito to inform a committee to undertake a complete investigation by determining criminal and civil liability regarding the claims of paper leaks within a period of fifteen days.
Hearing a series of petitions against the MDCAT held in the province on September 22 were a number of the candidates. They requested that the exam be ruled “null and void” and that the responders be ordered to reschedule the admission exam.
On the first day of the hearing, the following officials showed up in court as directed by the court: the chief secretary, the secretary of the boards and universities department, the president of the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC), the vice chancellors of the Dow University Health Sciences (DUHS), Jinnah Sindh Medical University (JSMU), Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Medical University Larkana, and Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences.
The bench listened to the authorities’ testimony as well as that of the petitioners’ attorneys, Shoaib Khatian and Khawaja Izharul Hassan.
According to the PMDC president, 2,841 out of the 58,389 students who took the MDCAT in Punjab received scores of at least 190.
Out of the 42,336 candidates who appeared in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, only 38 were able to obtain 190 or more marks. He said that 683 out of the over 38,000 pupils who took the test in Sindh received scores of at least 190.
The bench noted that after reviewing the record, it discovered numerous inconsistencies because there were differences in different locations.
Some pupils received the “lowest marks” on their board exam, but they received “190 plus marks” on the MDCAT, the court noted. It was also discovered that more than thirty pupils from an institute in Ranipur had received more than 190 exam scores.
At this point, the health secretary and chief secretary proposed setting up a committee to look into the matter.
The bench ordered the chief secretary to inform a committee made up of Dr. Shireen Narejo, the chairwoman of the Chief Minister Inspection Team (CMIT), Mureed Rahimoon, a former board and university secretary, the president of the PMDC or a designee, and the director of cybercrime at the Federal Investigation Agency.
The bench decided that the committee could appoint two members on its own, fix criminal and civil liability within 15 days, and conduct an exhaustive investigation.
It also stated that the committee will have the right to request support from any relevant authorities, request records from the relevant university and PMDC, request objections, and, if petitioners so want, hear their cases.
The secretary of the boards and universities stated that he had met with the Institute of Business Administration (IBA) Karachi, which could accommodate up to 10,000 students at a time, in compliance with the court ruling.
The judge also requested that the secretary schedule consultations with other reputable testing companies, postponing the case until October 26.
The petitioners have contested the MDCAT results on the grounds that there was a paper leak.
They also recalled that the previous year’s MDCAT was hacked and rescheduled following widespread media coverage of the paper leak. They claimed that it appeared the respondents had not grown from their previous errors and had just kept doing what they had always done.
Following the hearing, Khawaja Izhar, a petitioner’s attorney from the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan, informed the media that a significant portion of Sindh’s student body had scored above 190 on the MDCAT, suggesting that the paper had been compromised.
He insisted on taking severe measures against the PMDC and DUHS management.
