LAHORE – Rejecting the rumour that the Medical & Dental Colleges Admission Test (MDCAT) 2017 paper was leaked ahead of time, the University of Health Sciences (UHS) has asked the Cyber Crime Wing of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to act against that peddlign malicious campaign.
The move to enlist FIA’s help was taken after a Facebook page named ‘Ya mbbs hai mamu’ claimed that the entry test paper, that decides who will gain admission to the colleges, was available ahead of time to those who could pay heavily.
The UHS spokesman categorically rubbished the rumors that paper was leaked in any sense, whatsoever, before time.
“The fact is that some mischievous elements, after the conclusion of the test on Sunday, retyped and hand-drew a few questions and diagrams of physics section of the paper and posted those at exactly 04:28 pm on a fake Facebook page. The admin of the page gave an impression as if the paper was leaked before the test, which is absolutely incorrect. The test concluded at 12:00 noon that day whereas the questions were uploaded after more than four hours,” he added.
The spokesperson confirmed that sensing the severity of the whole episode, that could mar the reputation of the prestigious institute, UHS Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Junaid Sarfraz Khan had written to the FIA Cyber Crime Wing to thoroughly investigate the matter and bring all those to justice who were involved in that conspiracy.
“Involvement of commercial tuition academies could not be ruled out,” the spokesperson claimed.
UHS official went on and expressed that the objective of the post was to create unrest among the candidates and incite them against the university and the government.
He advised the candidates not to lend an ear to such rumour mongers and reject all such concocted stories as the “UHS would not compromise on its principles of justice, merit, equity and transparency.”
On the other hand, the same Facebook page while reacting to the news dared to face any trial in this regard through a post on Tuesday.
More than 65,000 candidates including 41,000 female students appeared for the Punjab Medical & Dental Colleges’ Admission Test (MDCAT) on (Sunday).
The University of Health Sciences (UHS) had deputed around 5,500 invigilators and around 1,000 superintendents and deputy superintendents.
The test was held simultaneously at 28 centres established in 13 cities – Lahore, Faisalabad, Sahiwal, Multan, Bahawalpur, Rahim Yar Khan, Sargodha, Gujrat, Rawalpindi, Gujranwala, Sialkot, DG Khan and Hassan Abdal, The Nation reported.
This year, the candidates are competing for 3405 MBBS seats in 17 public sector medical colleges and 216 BDS seats in three public dental colleges of the province. Besides, there are 2590 MBBS seats available in 21 private medical colleges and 555 BDS seats in nine private dental colleges affiliated with the university.
