PMC Highlights Importance Of National MDCAT To Set Merit Across Pakistan

Pakistan Medical Commission has highlighted the importance of National MDCAT and informed the Sindh high court that the test is significant to set the deciding merit for the public and private medical colleges across Pakistan. According to section 18 of the Pakistan Medical Commission Act 2020, every medical authority has the administrative power to hold the entrance exam for the medical college’s admissions in the country. But still, the PMC added that if each province will devise their own standards to hold the test separately then the world would not consider the medical degree from Pakistan. 

Uniform Admission Policy

The need of the hour is to finalize and opt for the uniform policy to take the test at the national level so that the license of the students can be valued in other countries as well. Further, the PMC also said that they had not forced any provincial admission committee to not conduct the MDCAT for admission in the medical and dental colleges. The authorities only demanded that apart from the provincial test the students still have to appear in the MDCAT to secure admission in the medical colleges of the public sector. However, the private medical colleges are not bound to follow this additional admission criteria.

PMC Counsel

Besides these several controversies regarding to the change in syllabus, the PMC counsel filed the statement and said that these changes are necessary to introduce the latest developments. The SHC bench was headed by Justice Mohammad Ali Mazhar and he declared that the new added law should be crystal clear and must not affect the students at any cost. Further, the court also adjourned the hearing till 28th October 2020. 

Views of Dr. Azra Pechuho

The health minister of Sindh, Dr. Azra Pechuho termed the PMC bill a 'disaster' and said that the bill had been rejected by the majority of people in the senate as it contains several unusual clauses. He emphasized that the entrance test must be formulated according to the provincial curriculum because the syllabus differs at the provincial level. In case if the test will be devised by considering the federal curriculum then it will put many students at a disadvantage.