PESHAWAR: The Provincial Doctors Association, Youth Forum, on Monday demanded of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to order the holding of fresh entrance test for public and private sector medical and dental colleges in the province after canceling the recent test over paper leak.

Chairman of the association Dr Hamid Khan told reporters here that the entrance test papers was leaked from inside the examination hall during test hours and that they went viral through WhatsApp and other social media applications.

He claimed that those papers was sold for Rs2 million.

Dr Hamid said 38,062 candidates, including 23,460 men and 14,602 women, sat the test conducted by the Educational Testing and Evaluation Agency at seven examination centres in the province.

Accompanied by association leaders Dr Sadam Wazir, Dr Qazi Shahbaz, Dr Zeeshan and parents of students, he said the paper leak was a serious issue, which would adversely affect the future of thousands of students.

Dr Hamid demanded of the Federal Investigation Authority to conduct inquiry into the matter and give exemplary punishment to the culpable people.

He asked the Etea officials to suspend the relevant officials until the completion of probe.

The PDA chief said the Etea had become a hub of corruption and therefore, the government should terminate of the association chairman forthwith.

He warned that if the association would move court if the fresh entrance test wasn’t held within 10 days.

Dr Sadam Wazir also criticised the Etea over paper leak and said the authority had miserably failed to hold the test in a fair and transparent manner.

He called for the dissolution of the Etea and to declare test results null and void.

The PDA representative said the association had met the relevant FIA deputy director to seek probe into the paper leak but he declined.

He demanded strict act against the culpable Etea officials and said the next test should be held in examination halls instead of the open air.

Published in Dawn, August 21st, 2018