The medical and dental college admission test candidates have taken a big sigh of relief with the restoration of Pakistan Median and Dental Council PMDC restored as Senate approves amendment bill regarding the restoration of the defunct Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC).  With the approval of this Bill the PM cease to exist as PMDC has been restored.

This has been a commendable development as the FSC pre medical students who are going to appear in Medial collages admission tests were in a fix for the last few months as to who is going to organize the MDCAT test, what will be the procedure like whether it will be a nationalized test or a provincial affair.

Moreover, a lot of discussion were going on about the syllabus and the MCQ bank and whether it will be a computer-based or it will be taken on paper. However, after the passage of this bills, all such questions have been answered by the new set up and the Test is going to be held next month in all the provinces simultaneously on paper. 

Minister for National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination Abdul Qadir Patel has shed light on each and every aspect with details, while rejecting the Opposition’s protest as it was passed after due deliberations. Now after the amendment, the PMDC will  consist of three civil society members, to be nominated by the Prime Minister,  and an individual associated with welfare activities, a legal personality, five professionals from the medical field and one chartered accountant as well. It has been made clear that the MDCAT exam will now be a provincial affair. Moreover, the NLE-national licencing examination, has also ended.

It may be recalled here that National Medical Collages Admission Test 2022 was scheduled to begin from Sept 7 but it was postponed  due to the  floods situation in the country and now the Test are scheduled to be held next month. As told by the Health Minister Abdul Qadir Patel, under the PMDC Amendment Act 2022, the MDCAT test will be conducted by provinces for admission to MBBS and BDS programs across the country, in all medical and dental colleges and universities.  Moreover, he also made it clear that National Licensing Examination (NLE), which was mandatory for all medical graduates, has also been done away with.

It may be recalled here that though the PMDC has been restored, but the procedure is still to be followed as the bills is still to be passed from the joint session of the Parliament and it will also be sent to the  President for final approval, which means that it can take some time. The students are happy about the restoration of PMDC as now there will be single test for all students across the country. It may be recalled here that when the PMDC was replaced by the Pakistan Medical Commission through presidential ordinance, the later PMC played havoc with the heath sector, medical education and its exams procedure. The National Medical and Dental Collages Admission Test 2021 conducted by the PMC turned to be so controversial and full of flaws that it drew country-wide protests and backlash from students aspiring for medical profession. 

The protests continued for almost two months and there were around half a dozen cases registered against the NMDCAT 2021 Test last year in various courts including the Islamabad High Court. The main objection of the students and professionals as also of the Pakistan Medial Association (PMA) was that the test was not transparent as it was marred by a number of controversies and the students were not given any proof of their answer sheet. It was a computer-based exam but the software prepared for the procedure was full of blunders and students reported disruption of the internet in exam centres as well during the exam hours. There were 62 different tests prepared for the students due to which the level of difficulty was not same.

Some students got easy questions papers while others were subjected to rigorous and hard questions, also out of syllabus questions were reported, due to which a large number of brilliant students failed the exams while average students got passed. 

Similarly, the students were also not provided the copies of their answer sheets due to which they were not satisfied with the results. Not only this, the medical entrance test fee was raised from Rs. 500 to Rs. 6000 which also caused a lot of difficulty for the poor students.  

However, with the restoration of PMDC, the students will now be able to get rid of so many controversies as the test will be conducted on same day and there should one test for all.  Moreover, the test will be conducted on paper and copies of answer sheet be given to them.   To conclude one may express satisfaction over the passage of the above-mentioned Bill by Senate Standing Committee on Health as it has stopped the PMC from playing with the future of the students aspiring for the noble profession and save the future of medical students and practitioners. As a matter of fact, our doctors and health professional are second to none worldwide, and they have been played a pivotal role in the medical field the world over. America and the Gulf States are the top destination for our doctors where they are performing per excellence. 

Our doctors also performed diligently without caring for their own lives, during the Corona pandemic as frontline workers. Out medical students are very industrious  and they must be given fair environment to work without any undue interference and discrimination by any authority so that they can concentrate on their studies which needs a lot of concentration as medical is not an easy study or a profession. 

Published in The Daily National Courier, October, 06 2022

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