KARACHI: Thousands of students who have applied for admissions to province’s medical and dental colleges heaved a sigh of relief on Tuesday when the Sindh High Court dismissed two petitions challenging the retake of the Medical and Dental College Admission Test (MDCAT).

A two-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi and Justice Abdul Mobeen Lakho lifted its restraining order and allowed the authorities to proceed with the admissions process in pursuant to the Nov 19 MDCAT conducted by the by Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS).

Several students had moved the SHC, challenging the retake of the MDCAT 2023-24 alleging that the exam paper was again leaked a night before the test.

On Dec 14, the SHC, through an interim order, had restrained the authorities from proceeding further with the admissions process and not to finalise the final merit lists of successful candidates.

Bench allows DUHS to finalise admissions process in province’s medical, dental colleges

Later, several other students also approached the SHC, seeking to become interveners in these proceedings and the high court had allowed the same.

On Thursday, the lawyers for the petitioners submitted that the paper was leaked and the entire process of the test had become controversial as the sanctity of the exam was compromised.

They asked the SHC to issue directives to the respondents to conduct the MDCAT for a second time through any reputed and uncontroversial university as per law.

However, a provincial law officer and the lawyers for the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) and DHUS opposed their contentions and submitted that the paper had never leaked and the test was conducted in a free and fair manner in accordance with the law.

The additional advocate general contended that only a ‘guess paper’ was leaked and the original questioner of the test remained intact and safe.

The lawyers for the petitioners insisted that the content of the ‘guess paper’ was in fact identical to the questions mentioned in the original paper.

The counsel representing some of the interveners submitted that their clients had passed MDCAT but they were suffering due to a delay in the announcement of the results.

However, the lawyer for a few other interveners supported the arguments of the petitioners’ counsel and pleaded for a new test.

After hearing the parties at length, the SHC bench, for reasons to be recorded later, rejected both the petitions through a short order.

The bench also vacated its earlier interim stay order and directed the DHUS, PMDC and others to finalise the admissions process for the sessions 2023-24 as per the MDCAT conducted by DUHS.

The first MDCAT 2023-24 was conducted on Sept 10 by the Jinnah Sindh Medical University (JSMU), but it was cancelled after an inquiry committee found significant evidence about unauthorised release of the test paper. On its recommendations and with the permission of the Sindh cabinet the MDCAT was organised again through DUHS on Nov 19.

However, dozens of candidates had petitioned the SHC against retake of MDCAT and on Nov 2, the same bench of SHC had dismissed such petitions after the PMDC had also supported the retake of MDCAT.

But, the students/candidates had again petitioned the SHC and contended that the MDCAT was re-conducted on Nov 19, but test paper was leaked again and circulated among students/candidates whereas certain screenshots had also been obtained by the petitioners whereby the test paper was being sold for Rs1.2 million.

They also argued that as per unofficial results circulating on social media, a significant number of students had scored 200 out of 200 marks for the first time, which indicated that the test was compromised.

They further contended that this fact alone strongly suggested that those students may have accessed the test paper a day before the exams, raising serious concerns about the fairness and integrity of the test.

The petitioners also maintained that a letter written by the health secretary to PMDC after the first MDCAT clearly summarised that the investigation conducted by the Federal Investigation Agency, wherein nine phone numbers that were implicated in the process of exam leakage, were being investigated.

However, they said that despite a comprehensive inquiry into the MDCAT held on Sept 10, no discernible action was taken, and lack of follow up measures raised concerns regarding accountability and responsiveness of the authorities involved.

Published in Dawn, December 27th, 2023