LAHORE: The University of Health Sciences (UHS) included 17 questions in the MBBS 4th year professional exam paper, which were already part of an internal test held by a private institution three months back.

The question paper was solved by more than 5,000 students of 42 public and private medical institutions of Punjab a couple of days back.

According to some students, the 17 questions were already part of the question paper attempted by the students in the send-up exam of the Red Crescent Medical College (RCMC) conducted some three months back. The gross negligence was pointed out by some RCMC students appearing in the MBBS 4th year professional exam when the question paper was distributed among the candidates.

“This blunder has left a big question mark on the transparency of the whole examination process being conducted by a leading public sector medical university”, a senior official told Dawn.

Seeking anonymity, he said the MBBS paper was prepared by a professor of the King Edward Medical University (KEMU), Lahore.

He said the varsity constituted a three-member committee to probe into the issue and fix responsibility. Headed by UHS Controller of Examinations Dr Asad Zaheer, the committee would start inquiry from tomorrow (Monday), while the MBBS paper was likely to be cancelled.

The official said under the UHS rules, the paper setters were strictly barred from repeating even one percent of the questions from any previously conducted exam. The paper setters had to submit an affidavit to the UHS in this respect, he said.

Explaining the procedure, he said the varsity got prepared three sets of question papers from different senior medics and later one of these was randomly picked for distribution among the candidates appearing in the exam.

“In this particular matter, the paper setter from the KEMU had also submitted an affidavit, pledging to ensue no question was taken from any previously conducted exam,” he said.

The official added the 4th year MBBS paper carried total 45 marks for solving 21 questions, of which 17 were repeated, which meant the RCMC candidates could solve more than 80 percent of the questions, which was a great advantage over others.

Consequently, he said, the UHS was left with no option but to revise the MBBS 4th professional exam in order to ensure transparency and justice to a majority of the students appearing in the exam.

Published in Dawn, November 17th, 2019