PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Tuesday dismissed a petition of several students against the current criteria for admission to government medical and dental colleges in the province.

The detailed judgement will be announced later.

A bench consisting of Chief Justice Qaiser Rashid Khan and Justice Mohammad Nasir Mahfooz pronounced the order after completing hearing into the petition, which sought the court’s orders to declare 40 per cent weightage of the admission process for higher secondary school certificate exam marks and 10 per cent for secondary school certificate exam marks illegal and restore the last year’s criteria of granting 50 per cent weightage each to HSSC exam marks and MDCAT test results.

The petition filed by Mohammad Zaraq Khan and four other students said under Rule 9 of the Admission Regulations (Amended) 2020-2021, 50 per cent weightage was given to MDCAT, while it was mandatory for the respective provincial government or its authorised admitting university to declare the rest of weightage at least 15 days before the opening of MBBS and BDS admissions to public sector medical and dental colleges.

Rejects plea against marks deduction for admission

The counsel for petitioners argued that the Khyber Medical University and Provincial Admission Committee with mala fide intentions gave advertisement for admission to public sector colleges on Dec 22 wherein the merit criteria was mentioned by giving 10 per cent marks to the secondary school (matriculation), 40 per cent to FSc (HSSC) and 50 per cent to MDCAT contrary to the previous policy of 50 per cent marks each for FSC exam and entry test.

He added that it was announced that admission would be open from Dec 29 and therefore, the criteria was announced only seven days prior to admission though under the rule, it should have been declared at least 15 days before the opening of admissions.

Advocate Abdul Munim Khan appeared for the KMU, additional attorney general Aamir Javed and additional advocate general Syed Sikandar Shah for the federal and KP governments, respectively, whereas Saqib Raza represented the Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC).

Munim Khan contended that the admission policy of granting weightage to the marks of both FSc and matriculation exam marks was made by the provincial government and not KMU.

He pointed out that a letter was sent to the provincial admission committee by the health department on Dec 8 wherein the impugned admission criteria for the 2020-21 admissions was given, whereas the said criteria was made much before it.

He said the condition of at least 15 days was fulfilled.

Meanwhile, the bench also dismissed another petition of several students, who sat the FSc examination for the second time to improve grades and challenged the deduction of 10 marks to be counted for admission to government medical colleges in the province.

In a joint petition, Salman Azam and 13 other students requested the court to declare formula for the purpose illegal.

They had also requested the court for awarding three per cent extra marks to them like those, whose FSc examination couldn’t be held due to Covid-19 pandemic and they were declared successful on the basis of their 11th grade performance.

Their counsel said while submitting admission forms, his clients were informed that according to the admission committee rules, 10 of the total marks obtained by the candidates would be deducted from all those candidates, who had improved their marks in FSc exam.

He contended that the admission criteria/marks adjustment in respect of improvers was highly discriminatory and unconstitutional as the same was not applicable in other provinces.

The bench observed that the said criteria had been there for many years and if the petitioners were aggrieved with it, they should have challenged it before the time of admission.

It added that there was an earlier judgment of the high court in that respect.

Moreover, the bench adjourned to Jan 21 several other petitions of students related to different admission-related issues.

In some petitions, the students challenged the alleged discrepancies in the MDCAT, which was held on Nov 29 across the country and whose results were announced on Dec 15.

Ali Gohar Durrani, lawyer for petitioner Hafiza Shabana, said initially, his client was awarded 132 marks and later, the marks were reduced to 119.

He said the MDCAT results were announced on Dec 15 by the PMC on its website but they’re taken down within eight hours, while another results were declared on Dec 17.

He pointed out that the PMC had also announced that 14 MCQs were out of course in the MDCAT and the maximum marks for the same would be awarded to the candidates.

The bench directed the respondents, including the PMC, to re-evaluate papers of the petitioners through who had challenged their MDCAT marks through a committee of experts and produce report on Jan 21.

Published in Dawn, January 20th, 2021