LAHORE: The Lahore High Court has restrained medical colleges across Punjab from expelling Afghan students, providing interim relief to students challenging directives that required them to leave their institutions and return to Afghanistan.
The order follows petitions filed by Afghan medical students against directives issued by the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) on July 31 and September 1. The students argued that the regulator and individual colleges lacked the legal authority to terminate their enrolment after they had already spent years pursuing medical degrees in Pakistan. Several of the petitioners are studying at institutions including King Edward Medical University, Services Institute of Medical Sciences and Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Medical and Dental College.
The controversy began after the PMDC directed medical and dental institutions not to accept new admissions, placements, transfers, or other facilitation for Afghan nationals during the current academic session, and instructed those already enrolled to return to Afghanistan. Some colleges subsequently began departure procedures for Afghan students, including students approaching the final stages of their MBBS degrees.
The PMDC has since said the measures are not a nationality-based ban, maintaining that the review concerns regulatory, documentation and immigration requirements. It said more than 200 Afghan students were studying medicine in Pakistan, but only 22 had so far been confirmed as registered with the council, while verification of another 176 was still underway.
The students have asked the court to declare the PMDC directives illegal and unconstitutional. The case has also drawn criticism from the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, which has called for enrolled students to be allowed to continue their education and warned particularly about the consequences for Afghan women returning to a country where university education for women remains restricted.