High court halts all proceedings following MDCAT 2023-24

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Thursday restrained the Pakistan Medical & Dental Council (PMDC) and others from proceeding further after the Medical & Dental College Admission Test (MDCAT), conducted by the Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS), until further orders.

The interim order came on the petitions filed by medical students against the alleged mismanagement and non-transparency of the MDCAT 2023-24, and the supposed leaking of the paper.

The petitioners claimed that when the MDCAT 2023-24 was re-conducted on November 19 by the DUHS, the test paper was leaked again and sold for Rs1.1 million the night before.

They expressed surprise that the question paper was identical to that of the previous MDCAT held on September 10, and thus the test had once again become controversial because the sanctity of the exam was compromised.

They said that the en masse unfair means in the MDCAT has on the one hand shattered the confidence of the public in the examination system, and on the other hand, the piecemeal cancellation of the examinations would encourage the racket involved in the cheating.

The counsel for petitioners Nabeel Ahmed Khan and Jehangir argued that according to the 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 contended that this fact alone strongly suggested that those students might have accessed the test paper a day before the exams, raising serious concerns about the fairness and integrity of the test.

They made serious allegations against the MDCAT and the DUHS, and requested the court to restrain the respondents from finalising the list of successful candidates as well as the admission process for the session 2023-24 until the discrepancies in the MDCAT papers are adequately addressed.

The provincial and federal law officers requested time to file comments, while counsel Mohammad Wasiq Mirza filed power on behalf of the DUHS.

An SHC division bench headed by acting chief justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi directed the respondents’ counsel, including DUHS, to file their replies on the petitions by December 21.

The bench also ordered the PMDC and other respondents to not proceed further in the meantime in the matter of the MDCAT 2023-24 until the next date of hearing.