ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court on Thursday issued notices to the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) and Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Medical University in response to a petition challenging the Medical and Dental Colleges Admission Test (MDCAT) held last month.

Justice Arbab Muhammad Tahir asked the PMDC and the medical university to submit their response by Oct 10, asking if the PMDC had constituted any committee to probe the allegations levelled by students regarding anomalies and errors in the exam. The students also claimed that there were 30 out of the syllabus questions in the test as well as anomalies in the answer key. The court also asked what was the stance of Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Medical University regarding the allegations and sought a reply by the next date of hearing, which is October 10.

It is worth mentioning that at least 22,000 candidates appeared in MDCAT conducted by SZABMU on September 22 and a number of them afterwards complained that there were issues with the exam, for instance, its difficulty level, errors, and anomalies.

The petitioners, through their instant petitions, requested the court to declare MDCAT illegal, unlawful, and contrary to the PMDC rules. They sought a further direction that respondents be directed to re-take the MDCAT without any additional charges.

During the hearing, the counsels argued that the university refused to upload the question paper and the students were compelled to invoke the jurisdiction of the high court.