PHC Issues Notices to PMDC, KMU Over MDCAT Irregularities

APP

Peshawar: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) issued notices to the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) and Khyber Medical University (KMU), Peshawar, in response to a petition filed by aspiring Medical and Dental Colleges Admission Test (MDCAT) candidates from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

The petitioners raised concerns over out-of-syllabus questions in this year’s MDCAT and requested grace marks.

The case was heard by a two-member bench, consisting of Justice Shakeel Ahmad and Justice Sahibzada Asad Ullah, who directed PMDC and KMU to submit their replies.

The petitioners’ counsel, Sher Hyder Khan Advocate, argued that after several controversial incidents surrounding MDCAT in recent years, this year’s test was neither fair nor transparent.

He highlighted that out-of-syllabus questions were included in the exam, causing nationwide protests regarding the irregularities.

The counsel further noted that the petitioners were qualified candidates who had attempted all the questions.

However, they found that some questions were ambiguous, had multiple interpretations, or contained errors. Despite filing complaints to KMU, requesting a review of the answer keys by independent experts and seeking grace marks for disputed questions, their appeals were not addressed.

The lawyer referred to similar cases at Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto University, Islamabad, and University of Health Sciences, Lahore, where grace marks were awarded based on expert recommendations and the difficulty level of the exam. Following the hearing, the court directed PMDC and KMU to respond to the petition.