ISLAMABAD: With the medical and dental colleges admission test (MDCAT) only a few days away, there are requests to the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council to accommodate candidates who could not register themselves during the first two registration drives.

About 170,000 candidates will take the admission test scheduled for Sept 22 and the ministry fears new registration at this juncture can delay the paper and lead to monetary losses for registered candidates. Similarly, the reopening of the portal can also compromise transparency. The MDCAT portal opened for registration twice: from August 5 to 19 and then from August 31 to September 3.

“The PMDC again opened the registration portal from August 31 to September 3 and allowed those candidates, who could not register themselves, to get registered with a late fee. A number of candidates registered and now all the arrangements have been finalised to conduct the test in and outside the country,” a source said.

Sources privy to the MDCAT procedures told Dawn that some influential personalities, including bureaucrats and some members of the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC), had allegedly approached the ministry for the reopening of the portal to adjust almost 30 candidates.

Official says opening registration at this point can delay test, cause monetary losses

“It is unfortunate that a number of influential personalities have been making efforts to (re)open the portal again. We informed them it was not possible as four days had been left in the test,” the official said.

About 170,000 students have registered for MDCAT which will be held on Sept 22 at 30 venues across the country as well as Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) and two international centres (Dubai and Riyadh), he said.

Despite reservations expressed by the ministry, the influential personalities were insistent that the 30 late applicants be registered even if it delayed the entire exercise, claimed the official. “They want 30 candidates to be registered at the cost of thousands of candidates,” he said.

The official revealed that half a dozen personalities had bank receipts for the amount they deposited for the exam but that amount had not been credited to the PMDC bank account. “It shows that either these receipts are fake or they managed to deposit the amount in backdate which may arrive in a few days,” he added.

Similarly, some PMDC council members are also trying to reopen the portal. “They wanted to discuss the issue in the council meeting but fortunately the meeting, which was scheduled earlier this week, was cancelled due to some reasons,” he said.

Speaking to Dawn, Health Secretary Nadeem Mehbub said the ministry had not asked the PMDC to cancel the test, either formally or informally.

The ministry’s spokesperson, Sajid Shah, said that every year the health ministry and the PMDC get such requests. “Every year we receive applications which are forwarded to the PMDC to look into them. It is the job of the PMDC to consider them and take a decision. Ministry acts like a post office,“ he said.

Mr Shah said that there was also pressure via social media but hoped that PMDC would take an appropriate decision.

The Pakistan Medical and Dental Council had asked six universities across the country to conduct MDCAT on 22nd. These varsities are the University of Health Sciences in Punjab, Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS) in Sindh, Bolan University of Medical and Health Sciences in Balochistan, Khyber Medical University in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Medical University in Islamabad and Azad Kashmir, and Karakoram International University in Gilgit-Baltistan.

Published in Dawn, September 19th, 2024