Following a Sindh cabinet’s decision, the provincial health department has directed the Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Medical University Larkana to initiate the admission process in the public and private medical and dental colleges of the province for the session 2021-2022 by admitting candidates who have secured more than 50 per cent marks in the MDCAT 2021.
The cabinet, in a meeting last week, had decided to slash the pass percentage of the Medical and Dental Colleges Admission Test (MDCAT-2021) from 65 to 50, health department officials said on Tuesday and added that a notification had been issued directing the SMBB Medical University Larkana to initiate the process of giving admissions to those students who had secured more than 50 percent marks in the MDCAT.
“As we don’t want to keep seats in our medical and dental colleges vacant and fill them with students from other provinces, the Sindh health department has decided to give admissions to students who have secured 50 per cent or above percentage in the MDCAT 2021,” an official of the health department said.
At a press conference in Karachi on Monday, Health Minister Dr Azra Pechuho had hinted at establishing Sindh’s own medical and dental council through legislation in the provincial assembly if students from Sindh securing less than 65 per cent were not registered by the Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC), wondering if the PMC would exist in the next government or not.
On the other hand, the PMC, which conducted the MDCAT 2021, has declared that only those students securing 65 per cent or above percentage in the test would be eligible to get admissions in the medical and dental colleges in the country. It has announced that it will not register students who do not meet its admission criteria.
“The law and the Supreme Court have laid down the mandatory criteria for admissions to the medical and dental colleges in the country and no entity can alter the mandatory criteria.
The law mandates the PMC to set the passing marks and also declare the result the Medical and Dental Colleges Admission Test (MDCAT).
Even otherwise there are enough students in Sindh who have passed the MDCAT and secured 65 and who can be granted admissions to public and private medical and dental colleges in the Sindh province,” President PMC Dr Arshad Taqi had told The News while commenting on the Sindh cabinet’s decision.
