More than 140,000 candidates have registered for the 2025 Medical & Dental College Admission Test (MDCAT), which will be held nationwide and at a designated international centre in Riyadh. The exam has been postponed to later in October to accommodate students from flood-affected areas, and the Pakistan Medical & Dental Council (PM&DC) has outlined measures to ensure a uniform, secure and transparent testing process.
A total of 140,071 applicants completed registration for MDCAT 2025. Provincial breakdowns show 50,443 candidates registered under the University of Health Sciences, Lahore (Punjab); 39,964 under Khyber Medical University, Peshawar (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa); 33,160 under Sukkur IBA Testing Service (Sindh); and 10,278 under Bolan University of Medical & Health Sciences, Quetta (Balochistan). Registrations from other territories include 1,146 from Islamabad Capital Territory, 3,322 from Azad Jammu & Kashmir and 1,564 from Gilgit-Baltistan, all processed through Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Medical University, Islamabad. The same university is handling 194 registrations for the international centre. Punjab recorded the largest number of applicants, followed by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh.
The PM&DC said the exam will be administered by universities nominated by federal and provincial authorities rather than by the Council itself. As regulator, PM&DC has developed a uniform syllabus and an item bank in consultation with stakeholders, and it requires test-conducting universities to adhere to its standards for paper setting and result declaration.
Universities responsible for admissions have been directed to make necessary arrangements to accommodate the large candidate pool across all provinces and the international centre. The PM&DC and the testing universities are coordinating with federal and provincial security agencies, including the Federal Investigation Agency, intelligence bodies and the police, to guard against paper leaks and cheating. Candidates have been advised to follow only official instructions issued by PM&DC or the administering universities and to disregard unverified media reports.
The Council emphasized that any incident of malpractice will not be tolerated and will be dealt with firmly and in accordance with the law. PM&DC President Dr. Rizwan Taj asked universities to make every effort to ensure a smooth examination and urged candidates to prepare diligently, stressing that hard work and merit are the only acceptable paths to success and warning against the use of unfair means.
