ISLAMABAD: The Senate Subcommittee on National Health on Monday scrutinised the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council's (PMDC) MDCAT policy, raising concerns over the examination schedule, syllabus, students' complaints and the functioning of the assessment committee.
The meeting, chaired by Senator Anusha Rehman, was attended by Federal Health Minister Mustafa Kamal, PMDC officials, vice chancellors of various universities and committee members. Senator Samina Mumtaz Zehri joined the proceedings online.
At the outset, committee members expressed displeasure over the delayed arrival of the health minister. Senator Shahzaib Durrani pointed out that the meeting had already been rescheduled three times at the minister's request.
Briefing the committee, PMDC officials said this year's MDCAT would be conducted in 36 cities, including 35 across Pakistan and one in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Around 135,000 candidates are expected to appear in the examination. Officials said a national uniform syllabus had been introduced to address controversies and paper-related issues witnessed in previous years.
However, Senator Anusha Rehman said the committee had received nearly 1,000 complaints regarding the syllabus. She questioned why students were being forced to rely on expensive academies and highlighted complaints that FSc students were studying A-Level material, while A-Level students were being asked to prepare from FSc textbooks.
Senator Samina Mumtaz Zehri said the schedules of FSc, A-Level and MDCAT examinations were overlapping, creating unnecessary pressure on students. She added that despite this being the committee's second meeting on the issue, she continued to receive around 50 messages daily from affected students.
Responding to the concerns, Health Minister Mustafa Kamal said the system always had room for improvement and invited students with genuine grievances to meet PMDC officials directly so their issues could be resolved.
The minister maintained that only four formal complaints had been received last year and alleged that many social media messages were part of a "mafia campaign" aimed at creating controversy.
"My assessment is that our system is perfect. Even if a single student has a genuine issue, we are ready to resolve it," the minister said.
He added that PMDC had already adjusted the examination schedule and that MDCAT would now be held three weeks after the conclusion of board examinations. He noted that the last board examination would conclude on July 20.
During the meeting, Senator Anusha Rehman reminded the minister that the committee's role was to assist the ministry in resolving public concerns. The committee also sought complete details of the MDCAT assessment committee members, and the federal health minister assured members that the information would be provided within the next 24 hours.
