RAWALPINDI: Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) Punjab Chapter on Friday demanded the government to conduct Medical and Dental Admission Tests (MDCAT) on same day across the country under the supervision of public-sector medical university as we did not accept the tests conducted by Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC).

Addressing the press conference, PMA Punjab President Dr. Ghulam Shabbir said there was a dire need to regulate the medical education as per international standards and it should be done under guidance of professionals instead of unprofessional people of PMC.

He condemned the torture on young doctors and said that the government tried to unrest among the educated people of the country.

He said PMC had violated its Act by stretching the MDCAT in a month. “It exposed the unprofessional approach and wasted the time of candidates,” he said.

Under the PMC Act 2020, he said that all candidates were to be tested on the same day. “The PMC, in violation of its own law, extended the test to a full month. It is unfortunate that this test was conducted by a contractor,” he said.

“This is a main exam for admission to medical and dental colleges. It is against the law to get every child tested in different ways in a difficult manners,” he said.

He said the contract for conducting MDCAT test to the private company and to oblige the company fee had been increased from Rs500 to Rs6000. He said that Transparency Pakistan also raised objection on this company.

He said Higher Education Commission also failed to formulate the regulations for medical and dental colleges test. He said that government ministers and adviser commented that standard of medical professional was downward.

He said the government had said post-exam analyses are being conducted and this work was to Quaid-i-Azam University but we did not accept it.

“Weren’t there good doctors before PMC? first destroy aviation sector now it is the turn of health sector,” he said and added that we have contacted court against this test.

Published in Dawn, October 9th, 2021