Peshawar- The Provincial Doctors Association (PDA), Youth Forum, has opposed the centralised admission policy of Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC).
Speaking at a news conference on Monday, PDA Youth Forum President Dr Shahbaz demanded that PMDC changed the new policy so that many students are not left helpless regarding their dreams to pursue medicine. He remarked that this new policy had sparked controversies ever since it was proposed. The policy allows students of all provinces to get admissions in private medical colleges, on open merit, in any province, he explained.
Dr Shahbaz said the test was conducted by Educational Testing and Evaluation Agency (ETEA) and Medical and Dental College Admission Test (MDCAT) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab, respectively, for admissions in public and private medical colleges. He said that the test results for the two test systems were different from each other.
He said a total of 61,900 candidates appeared in the entrance test under MDCAT system in Punjab while 38,068 candidates took ETEA test in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The position holder scored about 98 percent in MDCAT against 81 percent of the ETEA position-holder. He added that the ratio of students who had secured over 50 percent marks was about 67 percent in the MDCAT test against the 16 percent for ETEA test.
He called out PMDC over the faulty new policy as the result of which many students of KP would be deprived of taking admissions in the private medical colleges of their province. With the support of General Secretary Dr Zeeshan Khan, Dr Javaid and others, he urged the Chief Justice of Pakistan, Prime Minister, President of PMDC, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister and Provincial Minister for Health to take notice of the matter to save the future of many students.
He warned the government about launching a protest drive and taking the matter to the court of law if their demands were not accepted.
Dr Shahbaz said that the merit list for the qualified students of ETEA test had not been displayed yet, which was wasting the time of students. He said that some parents wanted to get the ETEA test results changed by re-totalling and re-checking methods. He urged the provincial government to issue the merit list instead of changing the results.
Three culprits have so far been arrested in the ETEA scandal and the search for others is going on.