ISLAMABAD – The Medical and Dental College Admission Test (MDCAT) will be re-conducted on November 24 in Islamabad and Azad Jammu and Kashmir, reports said on Thursday.
More than 17,000 students have registered for the test which was previously conducted by the Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Medical University (SZABMU) in September before it was challenged in the high court.
Last month, Justice Arbab Muhammad Tahir of the IHC declared the MDCAT 2024 conducted in September invalid.
Students who appeared for the MDCAT for medical admissions had filed a petition for a retake. The petition, filed by six students, including Ammar Naeem, Shahzaib Wazir, and Saba Iman, named the federal government through the Health Ministry’s Secretary, the President of PMDC, the Vice-Chancellor of Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Medical University, and the Chairman of the National Medical and Dental Board as respondents.
The petition claimed that out of 200 MCQs, 26-27 were out of the syllabus, which shocked the students. Additionally, the examiner took back the question papers after the test, which should have remained with the students. Due to irregularities in the MDCAT, both students and their parents staged a peaceful protest, asserting that the authorities failed to maintain transparency in the test.
The petition requests that the MDCAT be declared null and void, and that orders be issued for a retest.
