There have been complaints that the question paper was leaked in Sindh and that more than 20 questions in the exam administered by Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Medical University (SZABMU) in Islamabad were not covered in the syllabus since September 22, when approximately 170,000 candidates took the test, which was administered by six universities across the nation and overseas.

In a letter to the SZABMU and Azad Jammu and Kashmir government representatives, Azad Kashmir College Teachers’ Association President Prof. Tariq Saleem reportedly complained that several errors in the exam paper upset the candidates and asked that their concerns be taken seriously. The document is available with Dawn.

However, in response to the claim regarding the paper leak, a bench of the Sindh High Court made up of Justice Salahuddin Panhwar and Justice Amjad Ali Sahito summoned the vice chancellors of Jinnah Sindh Medical University, the health secretary, the president of the PMDC, and the chief secretary of other universities to appear in person on October 9.

Complaints have been submitted by candidates to PMDC and the university. They state that certain applicants received 199 out of 200 possible points as a result of Paper leak.

Speaking to Dawn, SZABMU vice chancellor Dr Tariq Iqbal said about 210 complaints were received. They were being reviewed and a final decision would be made in a day or two, he said. “All question-related complaints are being reviewed by the independent subject specialist committee having three teachers for each subject,” he said while explaining the review process.

The SZABMU also issued a statement on Wednesday claiming that the university made all necessary arrangements to ensure smooth and transparent conduct of the test under the policy guidelines and auspice of PMDC. “SZABMU employed ample number of invigilation staff and other logistical and technological support to supervise the exam and to effectively prevent any breach of sanctity of exam process particularly paper leakage and use of unfair means during the exam.

More than 22,000 students submitted applications for appearing in the MDCAT-2024. The necessary process of scrutiny and verification of applications was conducted in collaboration with PMDC under the prescribed notified eligibility criteria. Subsequently, more than 21,000 students appeared in the MDCAT-2024.

“Immediately after the test, the SZABMU management established institutional mechanism including a dedicated complaint portal and the experts’ committees for genuine redressal of MDCAT-related post-exam complaints submitted by the respective students. The vice chancellor had directed the committees to resolve all the complaints before announcement of the result.

“The university received a total of 209 complaints. Most of the complaints were essentially the requests by students to the university for uploading of the question paper and the answer key. A few students contended that some questions were out of syllabus. After due process, all these complaints were disposed of with appropriate, expeditious and fair redressal in accordance with the laid down policy, rules and regulations of PMDC and SZABMU. Final result of MDCAT-2024 has been announced and uploaded on website of the university,” it stated.

While talking to Dawn, some candidates, however, said that the university should give at least 23 marks to each student if it was not possible to retake the test.

However, a senior official of PMDC, whishing not to be quoted, said that the council called a meeting of all VCs and discussed post hoc analysis across the country.

“It showed that candidates of Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan got exceptionally good marks. However, test conducted by SZABMU in Islamabad, AJK and abroad was quite difficult. Fact is that for last three years SZABMU’s tests were easy, and the University of Health Sciences (UHS), Lahore, tests were difficult. This year, in Punjab, most of the seats of colleges will be bagged by UHS students while SZABMU candidates will be on the losing end. However, there was no proof of leakage of question papers,” he said.

“We have decided to hold independent analysis of all the questions in which it will be observed how many candidates gave correct answers of all or most of the questions. Moreover, we have decided that PMDC will develop its own question bank and from next year same question paper will be provided to candidates from across the country. We will ensure availability of printers in every district so that question papers would be printed timely and sent to centres. We hope it will end the ‘conspiracy’ as every student will get the same difficulty level,” he said.