THE attitude of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) administration is often pathetic and careless in several respects. The induction for the postgra-duate fellowship of the College of Physicians and Surgeons (FCPS) takes place twice every year. Favouritism during the process is common knowledge among healthcare professionals.

Since last year, only the names of the selected candidates are being displayed without any screening or test. When one of the assistant professors took a bold step, and complained about it, a centralised policy was hastily generated covering all federal medical teaching institutions in the Islamabad region.

The recent test was conducted on Dec 1, and it was nothing but a farce. While the test started late, there was only one invigilator per hall, who was basically a house officer, junior to most of those who were sitting the test. The worst part of the process was that there were ‘discussions’ among candidates in the examination hall on how to solve the multiple-choice questions (MCQs), while the invigilators preferred to remain silent bystanders. The use of cellphones was rampant as well.

The unfortunate part was that the exa-mination paper was meant for all speci-alties, be it medicine, surgery, gynaecology or paediatrics. A lot of candidates had travelled from far-flung areas of the country only to realise that they had no realistic chance of qualifying in the face of favouritism. There was nothing to suggest that merit was anybody’s concern in the whole exercise. Higher authorities should take notice of the matter urgently.

Asim Abbas
Hangu

Published in Dawn, February 7th, 2025