PESHAWAR: The candidates from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa who sat the last medical and dental college admission test (MDCAT) have complained about admission delays caused by restrictions from the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council.

PMDC president Prof Rizwan Taj told Dawn that enrolments in medical and dental colleges would start after the fresh MDCAT was held in Islamabad Capital Territory and Sindh.

Official sources said the Khyber Medical University tasked with admitting students for MBBS and BDS courses in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had finalised the “merit list” for admissions but couldn’t display it due to PMDC restrictions.

They said admitting universities, whose MDCATs were declared transparent and which didn’t face any court case, had prepared merit lists, which would be made public only after the fresh test was conducted.

PMDC says enrolments to begin after fresh MDCAT held in Islamabad, Sindh

Sources said the Khyber Medical University was among those varsities as it had finalised the merit list for admissions on open seats.

They said for MBBS, the students with 92.75 aggregate marks in MDCAT were eligible for enrolment in the Khyber Medical College (KMC) Peshawar, 92.18 for Ayub Medical College (AMC) Abbottabad, 91.84 for Khyber Girls Medical College (KGMC) Peshawar, 91.77 for Bacha Khan Medical College (BKMC) Mardan, 91.69 for Saidu Medical College (SMC) Swat, 91.52 for Nowshera Medical College (NMC) Nowshera, 91.46 for Gajju Khan Medical College (GKMC) Swabi, 91.29 for Gomal Medical College (GMC) Dera Ismail Khan, 91.17 for Bannu Medical College (BMC) Bannu and 90.99 for KMU Institute of Medical Sciences (MIMS) Kohat.

The sources said the “expected merit for general self-finance seat” was 91.21 for KMC, 91.01 for AMC and KGMC, 91 for BKMC, 90.94 for SMC, 90.92 for NMC, 90.85 for GKMC, 90.76 for GMC, 90.67 for KIMS, and 90.64 for BMC.

They said the merit for dental colleges in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was 90.52 marks for Khyber College of Dentistry Peshawar, 90.75 for Ayub Dental Section (ADS) Abbottabad, 90.71 for Bacha Khan Dental Section (BKDS) Mardan, 90.64 for Saidu College of Dentistry (SCD) Swat and 90.40 for KMU Institute of Dental Sciences (KIDS) Kohat.

The sources said the students with 90.5, 90.46, 90.42, 90.32 and 90.28 aggregate marks were eligible for “general self-finance seats” in KCD, ADS, BKDS, SCD and KIDS respectively.

They added that the students in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were confused as KMU and other institutes were enrolling students in different disciplines of BS programme.

“I appeared in MDCAT and expect selection on merit, but there will remain uncertainty about my admission to medical or dental colleges unless the merit list is displayed by the KMU,” a girl student told Dawn.

She said she had planned admission to the BS course as the last date for enrolment neared.

“If I depositthefee for theBS programme but later get selected for MBBS and BDS programmes, then I won’t get my fee back. I request PMDC to allow KMU to announce MDCAT results and save us from spending additional amounts for the BS programme,” she said.

Sources said 535 students from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had appeared in Islamabad and Sindh MDCATs but even after the test was conducted afresh, those students won’t impact the merit list.

On Oct 29, the Islamabad High Court directed the PMDC and Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Medical University Islamabad to re-conduct the test within one month.

The tentative date for the test is Nov 24 but the test is unlikely to be held due to the PTI’s protest scheduled in the federal capital on that day.

On Oct 26, the Sindh High Court directed authorities to hold fresh MDCAT within four weeks after a probe committee declared that the entire Sept 22 test exercise in the province “had been compromised.”

Sources said that the holding of MDCAT across the country simultaneously was introduced under the Pakistan Medical Commission Act, 2020, but that law stood abolished leaving the matter for the PMDC to take care of.

They said it was expected that the admitting universities would be allowed to hold MDCAT on days they wanted.

Published in Dawn, November 22th, 2024