KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Thursday restrained till further orders the National Testing Service from conducting a fresh test for admissions to the government-run medical colleges and universities of the province.

Headed by Justice Munib Akhtar, the bench was hearing a set of identical petitions filed by students and a political party, Pasban-i-Pakistan, against the provincial government for re-conducting the NTS test.

The bench issued notices to the respondent authorities directing them to file their respective comments by the next date of hearing which would be later pronounced by the court’s office.

The petitioners moved the SHC after the provincial government on Nov 11 notified to re-conduct the test by cancelling results of a test held earlier after finding it controversial.

The petitioners asked the court to declare the government notification for annulling the NTS test results for admissions to government-run medical colleges and universities null and void.

They impleaded the health secretary, the chief executive officer of the NTS and the chairman of the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council as respondent and submitted that the NTS was a reputed company involved in providing services for conducting various examinations, tests, screening processes for the government and other institutions.

They denied the allegations of entry paper leak and said that the impugned notification was issued without lawful authority and the same was liable to be declared null and void.

They urged that Haziq Khursheed and other students who had cleared the test were entitled to be given admission to the medical college or university in accordance with their result.

They also asked the court to declare that the test results of the entry test for MBBS and BDS for session 2017-18 were valid and liable to be acted upon.

The petitioners requested the SHC to restrain the respondents and their agents from conducting any other entry test for MBBS and BDS session 2017-18.

Bail pleas dismissed

Meanwhile, another two-judge bench of the SHC dismissed bail pleas of 15 officials of the Pak Punjab Cooperative Housing Society in the case pertaining to misappropriation of 358 plots of genuine allotees.

Published in Dawn, November 24th, 2017