Aspirant doctors and their parents protested outside the Peshawar Press Club on Friday against the decision to re-conduct the Medical and Dental College Admission Test 2023.

They called it an injustice to those aspirants who were successful in securing passing marks. The protesters said that the authorities bowed to those who failed to clear the MDCAT.

It is pertinent to mention that the cabinet of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on September 28 decided to re-conduct MDCAT 2023 following allegations of massive cheating in the exam held on September 10. The decision to retake this entrance test for medical and dental college was taken in the provincial cabinet meeting.

The students and their parents termed it a “victory for the mafia” while urging for an investigation into the test results.

Read: What is MDCAT and why there are two versions

On September 25, applicants who successfully passed the MDCAT approached the Peshawar High Court against the proposed retake of the test.

The petition was filed by students who had scored at least 180 in the test. They maintained in the petition that they had worked hard to pass the test and that retaking would be a disadvantage to talented students who had cleared the test the first time.

The students have argued that the MDCAT rules do not have a provision for the test to be retaken.

The MDCAT results in KP became controversial after officials of the Higher Education Commission busted a cheating scheme involving cutting-edge technology as the officials apprehended dozens of students attempting to use covert Bluetooth devices for cheating on September 10.

Later on September 21, The Peshawar High Court barred the medical colleges from uploading results of the recent MDCAT on their official websites until the findings of a joint investigation team were received.