ISLAMABAD: As the Peshawar high Court stayed the release of Medical and Dental Colleges Admission Test (MDCAT) results, the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) has found that a few out-of-syllabus questions were also included in this year’s test.

PMDC President Dr Rizwan Taj on Friday directed vice-chancellors of all public universities to re-check their question papers and address any discrepancies found in the paper at the earliest.

He has also directed that conducting universities must take serious action and hold inquiries against all those involved in using unfair means in the examination.

According to a statement, MDCAT has been successfully completed in national and foreign venues, wherein, almost 187,000 students appeared for the test.

“In order to review the examination process, assess the difficulty level of the question paper, address any potential issues that may have arisen during the MDCAT exam, and ensure the fairness and integrity of the examination, President PMDC Prof Dr Rizwan Taj held a post-examination analysis meeting of the MDCAT 2023,” it stated.

Prior information of ‘cheating devices’ was passed on by intel agencies, reveals KMU vice chancellor

The meeting was attended by vice chancellors of all provincial conducting universities, including University of Health Sciences (UHS), Khyber Medical University (KMU), Jinnah Sindh Medical University (JSMU), Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Medical University (SZABMU), Balochistan University of Medical and Health Sciences (BUMHS) followed by the examination department of the PMDC.

During the meeting, the PMDC president showed concerns and inquired regarding the news floating in the media regarding the MDCAT paper and its authenticity.

The VC of KMU stated that almost 46,439 students were registered wherein 45,640 appeared in the exam. He apprised that during the exam 219 students were caught red-handed using unfair means, and added that necessary legal action has been taken against all those candidates involved in the practice. He informed that they had prior knowledge from the intelligence agencies of cheating devices.

Therefore, all the candidates were checked properly at all the centres with four-layered security checks and body searches. He claimed that there were a few videos circulating on social media that were four to five years old, as no KMU exam was held outdoors.

The vice chancellor of Jinnah Sindh Medical University said a total of 40,528 candidates were registered from Sindh, of which 98pc of candidates appeared in the exam in four cities.

To ensure secrecy, a courier company was hired to move the confidential examination material at the venues, he said. “A total of three cases of impersonation were caught and FIRs have been registered against them,” he said.

He claimed that after four hours of uploading the key, he received pictures and complaints regarding the leakage of paper.

He said a five-member inquiry committee comprising senior officials had been formed to investigate the complaints. The probe committee, which includes members from the FIA’s cybercrime unit, would submit its findings in 48 hours, he said, adding that the announcement of results would be delayed until the outcome of the inquiry.

The representative of VC of BUMHS stated that 9,234 students were registered, and 97pc of them appeared for the exam, while no issues or complaints were reported.

The VC of University Health Sciences shared that the exam was conducted in 11 different cities and 29 centres without any issues. Of the 66,725 registered candidates, 65,226 appeared for the exam.

A representative of SZABMU told Dawn that around 18,000 students appeared in the MDCAT within the country and abroad out of which over 100 students lodged complaints.

Later, Interim Minister for National Health Services Dr Nadeem Jan held a meeting with provincial health ministers and the PMDC president.

Meanwhile, the Peshawar High Court on Friday stopped the Khyber Medical University and the Educational Testing and Evaluation Authority from publishing the results of the recent MDCAT on their official website.

This decision came from a bench comprising Justice Syed Arshad Ali and Justice Wiqar Ahmad and followed around 23 applications filed with the high court’s Human Rights Cell by concerned students/candidates who alleged irregularities in the test.

Published in Dawn, September 16th, 2023