KU committee recommends special exam for failed MBBS final year students

Karachi
A committee of the Karachi University set up to review final year MBBS surgery theory paper on a filed by students in the Sindh High Court (SHC), suggested on Wednesday that a special exam may be conducted within 15 days for the 114 complainants who had failed the exam.
The court was hearing the petition of Ghazala Ansari and 113 others students from different medical colleges who had moved court to contest holding of the surgery theory exam by Karachi University.
The petitioners’ counsel, Saify Ali Khan, stated that the final year students had passed in all subjects, save for surgery theory, because it was not conducted in accordance with the table of specifications provided by the Karachi University.
She submitted that head of departments of petitioners’ medical colleges had also raised questions over holding the surgery theory exam outside the table of specifications, but their objections were turned down by the Karachi University stating that the question paper was within limits of the syllabus of MBBS surgery course.
She argued that standard procedures and rules were not adopted by the respondents while conducting the MBBS final years’ surgery exam, since out of 483 students only 277 students passed while the remaining 206 students were declared fail. She said a majority of students could obtain just passing marks because the question paper was out of syllabus.
She requested the court to restrain Karachi University from announcing the date for holding supplementary exam of surgery theory, since the mark sheets of petitioners would be stained due to an irregular act on part of the varsity when the students had obtained distinguishable marks in other papers.
She asked the court to direct the examination department to give 15% compensatory marks to the petitioners by declaring the surgery theory exam to be irregular and not in accordance with the table of specifications. She also requested the court to restrain the university from announcing supplementary examinations of surgery theory date till the petition was decided by the court.
Karachi University’s counsel Syed Mehmood Alam Rizvi submitted minutes of the meeting convened under the supervision of controller of examination in which members of the meeting had suggested to hold a special exam for the affected students to save their time. If, it was said, any candidate failed in the special exam then he or she would have another chance to appear in supplementary exams.
The meeting ruled out the suggestion of awarding 30 compensatory marks to students because it was against the rules of Pakistan Medical and Dental Council.
The court directed the petitioners’ counsel to consult her clients and adjourned the hearing for February 23.