Senate Panel warns of FIA probe over MDCAT complai...

Summary

• Islamabad:  The Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) faced tough questions from a Senate committee over complaints about the Medical and Dental College Admission Test (MDCAT), including alleged wrong answer keys, questions that may have been outside the syllabus and the decision not to release the question paper to students.
• Senators questioned the fairness of an inquiry conducted by PMDC officials themselves and pressed for the question paper and answer key to be made public within 72 hours.
• Senators argued that students could not properly check their answers if they received an answer key but were not allowed to keep the question paper.

AI Generated Summary

Islamabad:  The Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) faced tough questions from a Senate committee over complaints about the Medical and Dental College Admission Test (MDCAT), including alleged wrong answer keys, questions that may have been outside the syllabus and the decision not to release the question paper to students. Senators questioned the fairness of an inquiry conducted by PMDC officials themselves and pressed for the question paper and answer key to be made public within 72 hours. The committee also warned that the matter could be referred to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) if the concerns were not properly addressed.

The committee raised questions about the independence of the inquiry after PMDC reported that it had found no major irregularities in the examination conducted through IBA Sukkur. A PMDC team said four senior directors, including the head of examinations, had visited the centre and reviewed the examination process, CCTV recordings, the checking system and the system for handling complaints.

The team said it had examined more than 1,000 complaints and checked the Optical Mark Recognition sheets of the top 20 candidates for signs of tampering. It reported that it had found no evidence of irregularities. PMDC also told the committee that the Sindh government had carried out its own review and reached a similar conclusion.

However, senators questioned whether PMDC could fairly investigate an examination for which it shared responsibility. Senator Anusha Rehman argued that an inquiry should be conducted by independent people rather than by the same institution whose work was under question.

Committee members called for an independent review and discussed involving people who were not part of PMDC. The chairman warned that the matter could be referred to the FIA if the concerns were not resolved. PMDC officials said they took the committee’s concerns seriously and would hold further discussions with university vice chancellors.

The inquiry team also presented figures from Sindh. It said 34,235 candidates had registered for MDCAT, while 33,336 appeared in the examination. There were nine examination centres, including two in Karachi and one in Islamabad for candidates from Sindh.

The highest score was 179 out of 180, achieved by a girl from Shikarpur who took the test at the Sukkur centre. Candidates from Hyderabad and Larkana were among those who scored 178, while candidates from Mirpurkhas and Nawabshah scored 177.