Daily Times

The Lahore High Court (LHC) has upheld the decision of the Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC) on the calculation of elective subject marks for 2021 candidates for the purpose of admission in medical and dental colleges. According to PMC spokesperson, fresh candidates along with students who had completed their FSc in 2020 had challenged the PMC public notice. The notice stated that candidates who passed their FSc pre-medical /HSSC or equivalent exam in the year 2021 and now are applying for admission in medical or dental college for session 2022-23 are informed that only their elective subjects marks and percentage will be considered for merit calculation for admission in medical and dental colleges for session 2022-23. As per PMC regulations, the admission process for medical education is based on a prescribed weightage formula in which MDCAT holds 50% weightage FSc (Pre-Medical)/HSSC/Equivalent holds 40% weightage and SSC/Matriculation/Equivalent holds 10% weightage. The PMC notice was contested on the grounds that the decision to only count elective subjects for candidates who completed their FSc in 2021 was discriminatory towards the candidates who had completed their FSc in 2020 and or post 2021. The Lahore High Court, dismissing the petition said that the policy decision of PMC to the extent represented by the public notice as such fully stands to reason and suffer from no inherent or illegal discriminatory feature being based on tenable classification and, therefore, warrants no interference in extraordinary constitutional and discretionary jurisdiction of this Court.