LAHORE, Aug 3: Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has made a 13-member committee to ‘holistically assess the pros and cons of the entrance test for admission to medical and dental institutions’ and directed it to submit its report to him by Aug 10 for decision, Dawn learnt on Sunday.

The committee consists of the higher education secretary, additional health secretary (technical), University of Health Sciences vice-chancellor (VC), King Edward Medical University VC, College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan president, principals of Nishtar Medical College in Multan, Quaid-i-Azam Medical College in Bahawalpur, and Punjab Medical College in Faisalabad, chairman of the working group on health, Dr Allah Baksh, Dr Ali Cheema, Dr Naeemuddin Mian and a representative of Pakistan Institute of National Affairs (PINA).

According to a source in the Provincial Health Department, the chief minister formed the body on complaints that academies were doing business in the name of entrance test. A good number of candidates from the under-developed areas of the province fail to pass the entrance test in spite of obtaining good marks in FSc. Since the booti mafia has also permeated in this system there are many chances that it may be dispensed with, the source says.

Those who oppose the entrance test system say that the system puts the students of under-developed districts at disadvantage as they do not have access to “resourceful academies”. Such academies have been operating in Lahore and Rawalpindi fleecing candidates seeking admission to medical institutions.

An underhand leakage of the examination paper in some centers every year also gives advantage to certain candidates that must be investigated. Those who are against entrance tests see no palpable difference in quality of students (in medical colleges) before and after its introduction.

Supporters of the entrance test system want its continuation on the grounds that it is necessary to ‘curb corruption’ in the eight boards of Punjab and that the entrance test also helps evaluate aptitude of the student.

The Pakistan Medical Association has long been demanding the government to abolish it, which says: “The government’s decision to stick to it (entrance test) is to contrary to its own claim that the boards have been purged of corruption. If there is no corruption in intermediate examination then there is no justification to put another check in the form of entrance test.”

The entrance test was introduced in Punjab in late 1990s during the first regime of Shahbaz.