A fair shot is all they are asking for

June 24, 2026

Sometimes the simplest requests are the easiest to overlook, and that is exactly what is happening to medical college aspirants in Azad Jammu and Kashmir right now. These students are not asking for special treatment. They are asking for something far more basic: a level playing field. While their peers in Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, Gilgit Baltistan and the Federal Board have already wrapped up, or nearly wrapped up, their intermediate exams, AJK students are stuck in limbo. Their board papers have been postponed indefinitely, internet access in many areas remains unreliable, and even reaching academies or study centres has become a struggle due to travel restrictions. Yet the MDCAT clock keeps ticking regardless. Registration opened on June 22, with the test itself scheduled for August 16. For students elsewhere, that timeline is workable. For AJK students still waiting to even finish their FSC papers, it’s simply unfair.

This is not just an AJK problem either. Students from across Pakistan studying in AJK’s cadet colleges and inter colleges are caught in the same bind, through no fault of their own. The solution here is neither complicated nor costly: extend the MDCAT schedule for affected candidates, and give them a clear, honest timeline. That is it. No special favours, no shortcuts, just enough breathing room to let circumstance-battered students compete on equal terms. PMDC and federal health authorities should act now, with compassion and urgency. These students have invested years preparing for medical careers. They shouldn’t lose that future over a delayed exam schedule and a weak internet signal.