No request received to lower MDCAT pass percentage, says PMC

KARACHI: Reiterating its previous stance that ‘undeserving candidates’ would not be allowed to study medicine, the Pakistan Medical Commission on Wednesday said it has not received any ‘official’ request from the Sindh government or its health department to slash the pass percentage of the Medical and Dental College Admission Test (MDCAT) from 65 to 50 per cent for admissions in public and private medical and dental colleges in the province.

“We have neither received any letter or request from the Sindh government for slashing the pass percentage of the MDCAT nor any delegation from Sindh has approached us in this regard,” President of Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC) Dr Arshad Taqi told The News.

He, however, also made it clear that the PMC could not bring down the MDCAT pass percentage for the students from a particular province, saying as per rulings from the apex courts, the Pakistan Medical Commission could not interfere with the merit and transparency of the admission process.

It is worth mentioning here that through a letter to PMC President Dr. Arshad Taqi earlier this month, Sindh Health Minister Dr Azra Pechuho had asked the PMC to slash the pass percentage of MDCAT from 65 to 50 per cent for admissions in public and private medical and dental colleges in Sindh.

The copies of the letter were also provided to the media, in which the provincial health minister had conveyed to the PMC president that a committee comprising vice chancellors and the representatives from the Pakistan Association of Private Medical and Dental Institutions would visit him soon to discuss Sindh’s proposal and reach a consensus.

The PMC president said there were enough candidates from Sindh who had managed to get the pass percentage in the MDCAT and added that there was also no restriction in giving admission to meritorious students from other provinces in Sindh’s medical and dental colleges. The Sindh health department has reportedly directed the private medical and dental colleges in Sindh not to give admissions to candidates from other provinces but they filled the vacant seats from students of other provinces.

In her letter to the PMC a few weeks ago, Dr Azra Pechuho had raised objections on the MDCAT’s format, saying it was designed by the third-party testing service based on the federal curriculum and was held on different dates for different candidates. She had also highlighted that last year the closing percentage for the MDCAT was set at 60 and that left 492 seats in Sindh’s private medical and dental colleges unfilled. “This year, the pass percentage set by the PMC has been increased to 65. Of the 68,680 students who appeared in MDCAT from Sindh, a total of 7,797 passed the test against 5,490 seats, and it is feared that most of seats will not be filled, resulting in a shortage of doctors in Sindh in the coming years,” she had stated.

Dr Pechuho had said she held meetings with the vice chancellors of public medical and dental universities and the representatives of the Pakistan Association of Private Medical & Dental Institutions twice, wherein it was decided that the passing percentage of the MDCAT should be slashed to 50 from 65. Urging the PMC president to consider their proposal in the best interest of Sindh, she had expressed the hope that the PMC would allow them to lower the merit for admissions to private medical and dental colleges in Sindh.