ISLAMABAD - The Islamabad High Court (IHC) Thursday dismissed six identical petitions filed against MDCAT and Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC)’s examination regulations.
A single bench of IHC comprising Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb conducted hearing of the petitions moved by the students and dismissed the same after hearing the arguments.
The petitioners’ lawyer contended before the court that the future of students was at stake due to new examination regulations. They asked that who would be responsible if the online examination system gets hacked.
They adopted that double fee was collected from the students due to joint venture with a private firm and the results of the test were sent to students through e-mails but later the PMC withdrew it while declaring a system error. The counsel prayed to issue an order as the medical colleges had started the admissions.
The petitioner’s lawyer also argued that the students who studied abroad would be considered foreign degree holders. He added that this rule was also for MDCAT, PMDC, BDS and MBBS as well, he added.
The court asked that whether there was any quota for overseas Pakistanis. To this, the lawyer answered in yes. The court asked the lawyer if he was overseas Pakistani then he also had to appear in MDCAT test for medical admission.
The lawyer said thousands of students wanted to appear in MDCAT but they were not being provided opportunity. The PMC’s lawyer said that soon arrangements would be made in Pakistan embassies abroad for overseas Pakistanis.
The petitioners’ counsel said that the test was taken in a marquee in Islamabad and results were received after two hours through e-mails. He added that the PMC had not denied these results in its answer.
He prayed to the court to stop the PMC from forming new admission rules and its implementation. He added that the department wanted to take control of medical universities and colleges.
The counsel said that the PMC had categorized universities and colleges at its own will, which he said was not the jurisdiction of PMC. He maintained that it was the power of Higher Education Commission (HEC) to prepare grading of educational institutions.
In June this year, the PMC has issued the new medical and dental undergraduate education (admissions, curriculum and conduct) Regulations, 2021 and categorized the colleges from ‘A+’ to ‘F’ grade on the basis of their last inspection score. The Commission has also directed the colleges to amend their fee structure as per their grade announced by the Commission and payment collection scheme by awarding a percentage of reward to students in case of lump-sum payment.
According to the PMC Conduct of Examinations Regulations 2021, the syllabus of the MDCAT exam shall not be bound to any textbook or HSSC board syllabus and the questions in each exam paper will be randomly selected from the examination question bank.