LAHORE – Given the re-conduct of the medical and dental college admission test (MDCAT) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh, the Provincial Admission Committee (PAC) has decided to open the MBBS/BDS application portal in Punjab for a few more days to accommodate the candidates who will reappear in the test in the two provinces.
As a result, Punjab will have to reschedule the admissions in public sector medical colleges.
The meeting, held at UHS on Tuesday and chaired by Specialized Healthcare and Medical Education department’s secretary, Ali Jan Khan was informed that the caretaker governments of KP and Sindh had formally announced the re-conduct of the MDCAT 2023, which had its results cancelled earlier this month. The retest is scheduled for November 19.
In line with the provisions of the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PM&DC) Act 2022, which allows candidates to take the MDCAT in any province with results acceptable throughout Pakistan, the committee decided to reopen the application portal for MBBS and BDS in Punjab following the declaration of MDCAT results in the two provinces.
The portal for government medical colleges will be open for three more days, while for private colleges, it will remain open for an additional two weeks for candidates retaking the test in KP and Sindh. However, it was noted that this would result in a delay in the merit list for public sector medical colleges, originally set to be displayed on November 13.
Ali Jan Khan stated that the MDCAT in Punjab has been conducted transparently. However, the retaking of MDCAT in other two provinces will also affect the students of Punjab.
The committee unanimously recommended that candidates should appear in the MDCAT based on domicile, as has been the practice in the past, to ensure that all candidates admitted to medical and dental colleges in a province are assessed through a single test.
The committee also highlighted that, according to the current PM&DC policy, the cancellation of a test in one province affects candidates from other provinces, and suggested the need for amendments to address this issue.
It recommended that the Punjab government should raise this matter with the federal government to conduct next year’s MDCAT based on domicile.
