MDCAT: Medical students want PMC to reconduct the test, protest enters 4th day. Report: Asghar Ali Mubarak

MDCAT: Medical students want PMC to reconduct the test, protest enters 4th day

By: Asghar Ali Mubarak

Islamabad: Medical students from across the country are gathered near D-Chowk for protest against the Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC) and demanded that the Medical and Dental Colleges Admission Test (MDCAT) should be held on a single day across the country. They said according to PMC Act a single test had to be held every year. However, under the interpretation of the law by the PMC each student would be allowed to sit a single test. But the students were demanding that the test should be held again on a single day. They alleged that the data of students were stolen as the website of the private company holding the MDCAT has been hacked. On the fourth consecutive day the Medical students’ demonstrators now plan to march towards the national assembly secretariat declared Red Zone Islamabad. Earlier, the Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC) C on Thursday September 23, 2021 called the students for negotiations after which a five-member delegation held a meeting with the PMC management. However, they could not reach any decision due to which the students staged the sit-in. On Monday in this regard a heavy police contingent has arrived at the protest site and sealed the road leading towards the Red Zone. The commission has already been under fire as it had given the contract of holding the computer-based MDCAT to a company which was registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) after the expiry date for submission of the applications for the contract. The PMC fixed Rs6,000 as a fee for each student to sit the test. In July this year, Transparency International Pakistan (TIP) had suggested to the PMC president and the government to take notice of the violations of Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) rules in the award of the MDCAT contract. The letter addressed to PMC President Dr Arshad Taqi, available with media stated that the commission had awarded the contract worth millions of rupees to a service providing firm incorporated in SECP after the advertisement date. The request for proposals was advertised by the PMC on May 4, 2021, from the service providing firms to hold a computer-based MCQ exam on an annual basis for about 175,000 students and the first exam was to be held in August 2021.The PMC had demanded that the service provider must have installed/available a minimum of 2,500-3,000 laptop/portable computer terminals of specifications and standards capable of handling a computerized examination to be located at centres in at least 20 designated cities across Pakistan.

The advertisement stated that proposals may be submitted in seven days and not later than May 10, 2021.The contract was awarded to M/S SOAR Testing and Evaluation Platform (SMC-PVT) and then the company requested the PMC to release an advance payment of over Rs115 million without deduction of the withholding tax (WHT) to adjust from its share, it stated. The letter signed by TIP Vice Chairperson retired Justice Nasira Iqbal stated that according to PPRA rules 15 days had to be given to the companies but the PMC provided only seven days. Moreover, there were a number of other violations, it added.

According to the PMC Conduct of Examinations Regulations 2021, the syllabus for the MDCAT exam shall not be bound to any textbook or the HSSC boards and questions in each paper will be randomly selected from an examination question bank. No person shall have the right to object to the questions. The Medical students have been out on the streets since Thursday September 23, 2021. They initially protested outside the Pakistan Medical Commission but didn’t receive any response by PMC. The protesters want the Pakistan Medical Commission to conduct the Medical and Dental College Admission Test again on a single day across the province. They claimed that the data of students was stolen after the website of the private company holding the MDCAT was hacked. “We want Prime Minister Imran Khan to oversee the matter. The future of thousands of students is at stake,” one of the protesters said, adding that they won’t budge unless their demands are met. Another student Najaf Ali said that the PMC claims it’s difficult to take tests on a single day given to the COVID-19 situation. “Everything else is open. Things have gone back to normal in every other sector. Why is it just us suffering?’ he said. If neighbor country can conduct exams of over a million students in a day why can’t the Pakistan Medical Commission do so too for 200,000 students? On September 23, a large number of medical students gathered outside Supreme Court’s Karachi Registry with a similar demand.