Protest demonstration against cancellation of NTS results

• Civil society members, parents and students demand merit, transparency in tests, admissions

KARACHI: A number of students, their parents, and civil society members here Saturday staged a protest demo against the cancellation of NTS entry results for admissions in the government-run medical colleges and universities and demanded to uphold merit and transparency in these admissions.

According to details, a large number of people gathered before the Karachi Press Club (KPC) and raised slogans against the Health Department authorities for canceling the NTS entry test result. The demo staged by the Pasban-e-Pakistan demanded the withdrawal of the decision to hold fresh test for these admissions.

Addressing the demo, Pasban President Altaf Shakoor said that meritorious student were the most precious asset and it should not be wasted with murder of merit. He said that cancelling the entry test results was injustice to the aspirant male and female doctors who have already successfully passed the entry test.

He said that there was no proof of paper leak and re-conducting the entry test would only serve the purpose of vested interests who want to kill the rule of merit. He said that the only beneficiary of this sad episode would be the owners of private medical colleges, who have already hiked their fees.

He said that the probe of the NAB and FIA has already shown that the leaked paper was fake and only one or two questions were from outside the course which is not a valid reason to cancel the whole test altogether. He said that the Sindh government was promoting corruption instead of merit and transparency.

He said that they would continue to raise voice for the rights of citizens including students. Abdul Hakim Quaid, Sardar Zulfiqar, Muhammad Hamid Siddiqui, Saeed Rabbani, Tahir Azeem, Akram Agaria and others also spoke.

Separately, Pasban president Altaf Shakoor and a student Haziq Khursheed filed a constitutional petition in the Sindh High Court, praying to declare the government notification dated 11/11/2017 for cancelling the NTS results for admissions in the government-run medical colleges and universities as null and void.

Making the Sindh province through health secretary, NTS through its CEO and Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) through its chairman respondents, they submitted that the NTS was reputed company involved in providing services for conducting various examinations, tests, screening processes for the government and other institutions.

The petitioners denied the allegations of entry paper leak and said that the impugned notification was issued without lawful authority is liable to be declared as null and void. They prayed that the petitioner was entitled to be given admission in medical college/university in accordance with the result of the NTS entry test, requesting the court to declare that no fresh test was required.

They also prayed to declare that the test results of the entry test for MBBS and BDS for session 2017-18 are valid and liable to be acted upon. They requested to restrain the respondents or their agents from conducting any other entry test for MBBS and BDS Session 2017-18.