QUETTA: Authorities have arrested eight individuals for impersonation during a major medical and dental college entrance examination held on Sunday.
The incident took place at the Balochistan University of Information Technology, Engineering and Management Sciences (BUITEMS), which was one of the test centers for the Medical and Dental College Admission Test (MDCAT). The Vice Chancellor of Bolan University of Medical and Health Sciences, Dr. Shabbir Lehri, confirmed that the impersonators were caught during the exam and subsequently handed over to the Airport Police Station. A formal case has been registered against them.
The MDCAT was conducted for admissions to medical and dental colleges across Balochistan. A total of 10,283 candidates from the province took the test, with the vast majority—9,553 students—sitting for the exam at the BUITEMS center in Quetta. An additional 730 candidates took the test at a center in Islamabad.
Strict measures were in place for the examination, including a ban on bringing mobile phones, smartwatches, or calculators into the test halls.
The Medical and Dental College Admission Test (MDCAT) 2025 is being conducted today across Pakistan, with a total of 140,125 candidates registered to appear in the nationwide examination.
As per the institutional details, 35 examination centers have been established across the country, along with one international center in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to facilitate overseas Pakistani students.
In this regard, in the federal capital, two examination centers have been designated for candidates.
The MDCAT test for Islamabad is being held at Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Medical University (SZABMU), PIMS building, and Bahria University.
In this sense, the MDCAT examination is being conducted through various universities across the country, and the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) is not directly administering the test.
Instead, the PMDC has provided access to the National Item Bank to all participating universities to ensure standardized question development and testing procedures.
Furthermore, the universities have been instructed to strictly adhere to PMDC’s standards and regulations during paper setting, development, and printing.
They are also required to conduct a pre-hoc review of the question papers to eliminate any content that falls outside the approved syllabus.
