ISLAMABAD, Nov 12: The Supreme Court has summoned on Friday the secretaries of the Punjab Health Department and the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council on a suo motu notice against the system of entrance examination for admission to medical colleges.

A three-member bench, comprising Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, Justice M Javed Buttar and Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani, was hearing a suo moto case initiated on a letter addressed to the CJ by the students who failed to qualify entry tests from Multan despite exemplary performance in the higher secondary school certificate examination.

Eight candidates, namely Marium Haider, Faiza Sajjad, Hafza Shakeel, Rida Fatima, Sidra Bashir, Nida Eily, Sidra Nausheen and Omaima Naeem, had sought revocation of all admissions to medical colleges on the basis of recent entry tests and requested for reintroduction of old system of admissions on the basis of marks secured in FSc.

These students had failed to qualify the recently-held entry test, the result of which was announced on October 9.

At present, all the candidates seeking admission to the Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) programme have to qualify the entrance examination.

Reverting to old system of admission to medical colleges will end exploitation of students by unscrupulous elements which had corrupted the entire system of entry tests by setting up academies where examination papers were leaked in advance to students enrolled with them after receiving huge amounts, the letter alleged.

It said about 2,700 candidates, both boys and girls, took the entry test from Multan, Dera Ghazi Khan and Bahawalpur, but only 76 could qualify.

Interestingly, 1,500 candidates appearing from Lahore passed the examination because they had paid Rs50,000 each to different local academies, which leaked papers prior to the tests, the complainants alleged in the letter, adding that the entire episode was also published in newspapers.

Despite announcement of the Punjab chief minister and the health minister to scrap the system of entry tests for medical colleges, these academies prevailed and the decision was not implemented, the students alleged.

In their letter, they also quoted the example of the daughter of a peon in the Water and power Development Authority, who, despite obtaining 934 numbers in FSc, failed to pass the entry test because she could not afford to join such academies in the name of preparing for entry test.