KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Thursday reserved its verdict on the set of petitions filed regarding the National Testing Service (NTS) test for admissions in the government-run medical colleges and universities of the province.
A division bench, headed by Justice Munib Akhtar, was hearing a bunch of petitions of two groups — one seeking NTS test to be conducted again and the other against it. The court reserved its verdict after the completion of arguments from both sides.
The pronouncement of judgement would be announced later.
The government’s notification cancelling the NTS results for admissions in government-run medical colleges and universities to remain suspended till the order, the court ruled.
One petition was filed by candidates who succeeded in the test, maintaining that the papers had been leaked before the exam which created a lot of doubts about the transparency of the results. The leak amounted to cheating with deserving students.
Another petition was filed by the successful student Haziq Khursheed and Pasban-e-Pakistan President Altaf Shakoor pleading to the SHC to declare the government notification as null and void.
Holding the government of Sindh as a respondent in the case through health department secretary, NTS through its CEO and Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) through its chairman, the petitioners submitted that the NTS is a reputed company involved in providing services for conducting various examinations, tests and screening processes for the government and other institutions. They denied the allegations of the paper leak and said that the impugned notification was issued without lawful authority and the same was liable to be declared as null and void.
They had pleaded that Haziq Khursheed and other students, who had cleared the test, were entitled to be given admission in medical college or university in accordance with their result. They also prayed the court to declare that the test results of the entry test for MBBS and BDS for session 2017-18 were valid and liable to be acted upon.
The petitioners requested the SHC to restrain the respondents or their agents from conducting any other entry test for MBBS and BDS Session 2017-18.
Earlier on November 11, the provincial government had decided to re-conduct the test by annulling the result of a test held earlier, after finding the same test controversial owing to the alleged leak of the paper.