MDCAT 2021: Students protest outside SC Karachi Registry against 30-day exam

By
Ahmed Subhan | Kashif Mushtaq
|
September 23, 2021

The protesting students demanded of the chief justice of Pakistan to take suo motu notice of the issue.

Students staging protest demonstration outside the Supreme Court Karachi Registry against the online test of MDCAT.


KARACHI: A large number of students from different colleges staged a protest demonstration against the Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC) outside the Supreme Court Karachi Registry and demanded that the Medical and Dental Colleges Admission Test (MDCAT) should be held on a single day across the country.

The protesting students demanded of the chief justice of Pakistan to take suo motu notice of the issue. The protestors were of the view that PMC was conducting the MDCAT exam on various dates across the country.

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Such a practice leads to questions leak, the protestors said and demanded of the government to restore the previous procedure of the test.

The students were of the view that the PMC’s online system was inactive for the last two days, adding that the students of pre-medial were undergoing agony as they could not get print of their admission slip during the period.

They also demanded of the PMC to address their issue at the earliest.

LHC issues notice in plea against 30-day MDCAT

On Monay, Justice Muzammil Akhtar Shabbir of the Lahore High Court (LHC) had issued a notice to the PMC and sought a reply on a writ petition seeking cancellation of ongoing MDCAT for not being held on the same day in violation of law.

A senior lawyer, Agha Intizar Ali Imran, had appeared on behalf of the petitioner-student Hadiya Khalid and contended that the petitioner appeared in MDCAT but had to face several complications, hurdles and illegalities during the test and could not secure the desired result despite being an exceptional student.

He had argued that under the mandatory provision of Section 18 (1) of the Pakistan Medical Commission Act, 2020(PMCA), MDCAT was to be held “on the same day” as “a single admissions test” in order to provide equal opportunity to all the candidates/ students. But the PMC is holding the same under the schedule from August 30 to September 30, which is a sheer violation of Article 4 of Constitution and the Section 18 (1) of the PMCA.

He had further argued that those students who had been asked to appear in the beginning of September-2021 will be able to find only the span of one month for the preparation of the said “Entry Test” whereas those will be lucky to have the chance to appear in the end of September-2021 will enjoy the length of almost two months for the preparation which is discrimination in contravention to Article 25 of the Constitution.



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