Private colleges' pleas against entrance test dismissed.

LAHORE -- The Lahore High Court has dismissed a challenge of the private medical and dental colleges against the regulations of Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC) which make entrance test mandatory for the students to join the profession.

The colleges in a set of petitions pleaded that the regulations made by the ministry of national health sciences were not in consonance with sections 3 (1) and 3 (4) of the Pakistan Medical Commission Act 2020 as neither the board nor the authority had been constituted.

Therefore, the medical council, without the constitution of the PMC, could not perform its functions as the council had power to frame regulations for conduct of admissions in medical and dental colleges.

But in the absence of the PMC, such powers could not be exercised assuming power of the board and framing regulations in order to approve the standards with regard to admission test.

The private colleges had taken a plea that the decision with respect to conduct of the Medical and Dental College Admission Test (MDCAT) were ultra vires of the provisions of the Act. They argued that the regulations were discriminatory in nature as it exempted Agha Khan University and National University of Medical Sciences (NUMS) as well as its affiliated colleges from the operation of PMC amended regulations.

The government opposed the petitions saying the colleges had no locus standi to challenge the regulations.

In his 20-page judgment, Justice Jawad Hassan has observed that the argument of petitioners' counsel that section 18 (3) of Act exempts the private medical colleges from MDCAT is misconceived as the said section says that admissions in the medical colleges shall be regulated by the policy of provincial governments strictly on merit.

It further says if any private medical college wants to lay down any 'additional' criteria for admission, it can take an entry test for the admission in...