MUZAFFARABAD, April 17: The AJK High Court has directed the nomination board to prepare merit list for admission to the medical colleges in Pakistan on the basis of aggregate marks obtained by the candidates in the entry tests of Punjab and the NWFP.

The board had imposed a condition on the candidates to appear in both the tests and it could not be allowed to take an inconsistent position for the determination of merit, held a bench comprising Justice Ghulam Mustafa Mughal. The judge said the candidates deserved to claim merit on aggregate basis.

The judgment was passed on a writ petition filed by Misbah Manzoor, resident of Muzaffarabad, challenging the nominations made by the board for different medical colleges.

The petitioner had pleaded that she had appeared in both tests, as required by an advertisement of the board. However, the board had prepared the merit list on the basis of the test of Punjab and the test of the NWFP had been ignored, which had deprived her of a place on the list.

She pleaded that the board had prepared the list in an arbitrary manner and in violation of a Supreme Court judgment.

The counsel for the respondents said the merit had been determined on the basis of “best out of best,” which meant that candidates holding better position in the respective tests had been nominated.