The Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) has issued a notice to Pakistani students enrolled in medical and dental programmes in Afghanistan, warning that graduates from Afghan institutions will not be eligible to practise medicine in Pakistan.
In its notification, the PMDC said graduates of medical and dental colleges in Afghanistan will not be granted registration by the council.
The council explained that Afghan institutions are not recognised by the Education Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates, making their graduates ineligible to sit the National Registration Examination (NRE) required for medical practice in Pakistan.
The advisory comes as authorities continue to implement the government’s Illegal Foreigners Repatriation Plan, launched in October 2023, under which undocumented foreign nationals and later Afghan Citizen Card (ACC) and Proof of Registration (PoR) cardholders have been repatriated.
According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), more than 2.5 million Afghan nationals have returned or been deported to Afghanistan between September 2023 and mid-2026.