33,694 take first step to become doctors

Around 33,694 candidates, including 10,859 male and 22,835 female, appeared for the medical and dental colleges’ entrance test, which was conducted by the University of Health Sciences (UHS) Lahore, simultaneously in 12 cities of the Punjab, amid tight security, on Tuesday.
The test, which started at 9am, went of peacefully at 21 centres set-up in Lahore, Sargodha, Sahiwal, Gujrat, Gujranwala, Faisalabad, Bahawalpur, Multan, DG Khan, Rahim Yar Khan, Rawalpindi and Hassan Abdal. All the centres were locked at 8:15am and no one was allowed to enter after that. A large number of policemen were deployed at the centres to prevent any disruption of the examination. Bomb disposal squads were also made available at the centres to counter any untoward incident.
Close circuit TV (CCTV) cameras, mobile phone jammers and walk-through gates were installed at all the centres. There were separate arrangements for disabled students, parking and waiting area facilities for parents of the candidates. Back-up power generators were also provided at all centres. In Lahore, there were three centres; one at the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE) Examination Halls at Lawrence Road where 5,440 female candidates appeared, the second centre was established at the University of Engineering and Technology (UET) where 577 male candidates turned up.
Punjab University (PU) Examination Halls at Wahdat Road was the third centre where 2,564 male and 1,492 female candidates appeared. In Rawalpindi, the number of candidates who appeared in the test were 5,252, Multan 4,779, Faisalabad 2,430, Gujranwala 2,594, Bahawalpur 1,712, Sargodha 1,170, Sahiwal 1,313, Gujrat 1,115, DG Khan 1,024, Rahim Yar Khan 853 and in Hassan Abdal 369 candidates appeared in the test.
In Lahore, Commissioner Jawad Rafiq Malik, DCO Ahad Cheema and other senior officials monitored the arrangements. Punjab Health Secretary Jahanzeb Khan said the UHS had taken appropriate measures to make sure that the test was conducted in a transparent manner. “There was no cheating incident reported from any of the test centres across the province,” he said. Talking to journalists, UHS Vice-Chancellor Malik Hussain Mubbashar said that highly scientific and sophisticated method had been adopted to maintain the secrecy, transparency of the examination papers and whole process of the test. He made it clear once again that admission in medical colleges would be purely on merit.
The 33,694 candidates would compete for 3,205 MBBS and 216 BDS seats in 15 public sector medical and three dental colleges respectively. Besides, there are about 2,200 seats available in private sector institutions of the province. The UHS has uploaded the answer keys to the question papers on its website. With the help of these keys, candidates can calculate their scores themselves. The official result will be announced later this month.