KARACHI, Dec 21: The Sindh health department will issue a new schedule of admission to government-run medical colleges on Saturday.

The provincial health secretary, Khalid Latif Chaudhry, told Dawn on Friday that his department would be in a position to give new dates for admissions only after receiving the revised results of the entrance test conducted by the Institute of Business Administration (IBA).

The chairman of the committee entrusted with the task of looking into the accusations of irregularities committed during the second IBA entrance test, Brig A.R. Nasir, also told Dawn that he would submit the report of committee findings to the chief secretary on Saturday.

At least 35 cases of change of answer scripts were detected during the probe initiated on Dec 16.

Sources informed Dawn that on the second assessment of the answer scripts at least 50 cases had also come up in which the marks obtained by the candidates were found to be different.

They added that these cases were those in which the IBA had provided wrong solutions. “The fact that the IBA had provided wrong solutions came to light when some candidates complained that the IBA answers had been incorrect.”

The health secretary said after the announcement of a new merit list, some time would be allocated for inviting objections.

He said that the health department had already decided to stop engaging the IBA for holding entrance tests in future. “The IBA has shattered the trust the health department reposed in it,” he said.

Answering a question, the health secretary said that in the light of the loopholes that had come to the fore this time, his department would work out a new entrance test system.

He agreed that the aptitude tests as conducted by the NED University of Engineering and Technology was more transparent than that of the IBA.

He said that the 50 per cent weightage given to the IBA entrance tests was not appropriate.

He added that he would approach the authorities concerned for a change in the existing entrance test system.