Doctors oppose PMDC centralised admission policy

PESHAWAR: The Provincial Doctors Association (PDA), Youth Forum, has opposed the centralised admission policy of the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC).

Speaking at a news conference on Monday, PDA Youth Forum President Dr Shahbaz demanded the PMDC to change the policy so that students could not be deprived of medical education. He said a new controversy had been generated after the introduction of the centralised admission policy by the PMDC. The policy would allow the students of all provinces to get admissions in private medical colleges on the open merit in any province, he explained.

Dr Shahbaz said the test was conducted by Educational Testing and Evaluation Agency (ETEA) and Medical and Dental College Admission Test (MDCAT) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab, respectively, for admissions in public and private medical colleges. He said both the test systems and results were different from each other.

He said a total of 61,900 candidates appeared in the entrance test under MDCAT system in Punjab while 38,068 candidates took ETEA test in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Dr Shahbaz said the position holder score was about 98 percent in MDCAT against 81 percent of the ETEA position-holder. He added the ratio of students, who had secured over 50 percent marks, was about 67 percent in the MDCAT test against the ratio of 16 percent in the ETEA test.

He apprehended that if the PMDC did not change the centralised admission policy, most of the students would be deprived of taking admissions in the private medical colleges in KP. Flanked by general secretary Dr Zeeshan Khan, Dr Javaid and others, he urged the chief justice of Pakistan, prime minister, president of PMDC, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister and provincial minister for health to take notice of the matter to save future of students.

He warned the government of launching a protest drive and taking the matter to a court of law if their demands were not accepted. Dr Shahbaz said the merit list of qualified students of ETEA test had not been displayed, which was wasting the time of students.

He alleged some parents wanted to get the ETEA test results changed by re-totalling and re-checking method. He urged the provincial government to issue merit list instead of changing the results. The doctor said three culprits had so far been arrested in the ETEA scandal and demanded the arrest of the remaining accused.