PHC disposes of petitions against MDCAT

PESHAWAR: A division bench of the Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Tuesday disposed of different petitions against the Medical and Dental Colleges Admission Test (MDCAT) after the government announced to re-conduct the exam.

The division bench comprising Justice Abdul Shakoor and Justice Arshad Ali had earlier reserved the judgment in the case.

The advocate general told the court the government after a cabinet meeting had already announced to hold the test afresh and the Khyber Medical University had been contacted in this regard.

He argued that a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) had taken up a number of issues in the MDCAT that needed to be addressed. The counsel of one of the petitioners told the court that some students had scored high marks. He added that there should be a system to ensure that such students do not suffer while re-conducting the test.

The court later disposed of the case citing the decision of the government to hold another test in a transparent manner. The detailed judgment will be released later.

Earlier, in what appeared to be a case of conflict of interest, a key member of the JIT probing the use of Bluetooth devices and other unfair means in recently held MDCAT in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was found to be the father of a low-scoring candidate in the same test.

On the basis of the JIT report, the caretaker provincial government also went ahead of its constitutional role and mandate to announce reconduct of the MDCAT test.

According to sources, one candidate named Moeed Hassan, who was the son of an additional secretary in the provincial Home Department and a key member of the JIT, Maqsood Hassan, could obtain only 136 out of the total 200 marks in the test.

These marks are insufficient for admission into any public or private medical and dental colleges. As per the law pertaining to the conflict of interest, this officer should not have been made a member of the important investigation team, a senior officer at the Civil Secretariat told The News.

When reached for comments, Maqsood Hassan admitted that his son had appeared in the test. “But, the result of the test has not yet been declared and my son has already chosen another direction for himself,” he said.

The officer claimed that it was not a conflict of interest if he was made a member of the committee probing the use of unfair means in a test in which his own son had appeared.

He said the JIT was about the whole process and if the government had asked him to be a part of the probe committee, it was not something unethical.

The officer said the JIT had not recommended reconduct of the test but only identified loopholes and gaps in the process.

A senior official in ETEA, however, said that they had already finalized the result, declared the top position holders and submitted the same to the PMDC, which would declare it along with other provinces.

“ETEA has also uploaded the solved key on the internet and every student was able to easily calculate his result from there”, he added.

It is important to mention here that the JIT formed by the chief secretary had been tasked to unearth the elements involved in the unfair means, arrest them and recommend suggestions for averting use of unfair practices in future.

It was none of its (JIT’s) mandate to suggest reconduct of the test, which it did in violation of its mandate.

Also, the JIT was led by a police officer which is why the lapses committed by the police got no mention in the report as it was their duty to check and prevent entry of any objectionable devices into the centre.

The caretaker government also asked KMU to conduct the test. Again, it was a violation of the law as under section 4 (a) of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Educational Testing and Evaluation Agency Ordinance, 2001 it was the duty of ETEA to conduct admission tests to the educational institutions of the province.

ETEA was the only testing agency in the whole country which busted the Bluetooth racket and conducted the test in a much transparent manner for which it should be awarded instead of being subjected to media trial.

Dr Yasir Imran, ETEA director, told The News that the staff of the agency caught 219 candidates red-handed who were using Bluetooth and other electronic devices and handed them over to the police. He said that 470 top scorers of the test were having brilliant academic records in the Secondary and Higher Secondary School Certificates. The topper of ETEA MDCAT, who scored 198 marks in the test, has also clinched the top position in the FSc from Kohat Board in FSc too.

The topper of Mardan board in FSc also scored good marks in the MDCAT. It is unfair to blame and discourage the brilliant students for the use of unfair means and force them to reappear in the test.

The director ETEA said that they had identified only 168 candidates who had not done the required level of rough work on their question papers. These candidates were being investigated further.

“Though not proven yet, if they are for the time being considered as beneficiaries of unfair means, it makes only 0.003 percent (only 3.6 in 1000) of the total 46,439 candidates who had appeared in the test. Will this be justified if the whole test is invalidated for such a meagre number of candidates,” he questioned.

Caretaker provincial minister for Information Mian Feroze Jamal Shah Kakakhel did not respond to the repeated calls and SMS by this scribe who wanted to seek his version about the situation.