On September 1, the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) ordered universities and colleges to send enrolled Afghan students home, barring new admissions, transfers, or migrations for the current academic year. More than 200 Afghan students are currently enrolled in Pakistani medical or dental colleges, and most have been affected. Students were given less than three days to prepare to leave, with some institutions issuing eviction notices giving as little as 24 hours to vacate hostels.
On September 11, the Lahore High Court suspended the implementation of the PMDC directives, hearing petitions from Afghan students. Justice Khalid Ishaq remarked, "Until yesterday, these were favoured children. Today, the policy has changed." The petitioners argued that PMDC had exceeded its jurisdiction and that students were "condemned unheard." The court allowed students to sit exams, join classes, and return to hostels, with the case returning to court on September 18.
The PMDC justified its directive by claiming that only 22 Afghan students were registered with the regulator, including 14 graduates and eight about to graduate. However, students say they were never informed they needed to register with PMDC, as the process was handled by universities and the Higher Education Commission (HEC). Many came through the Allama Iqbal Scholarship, a programme run by HEC with the Pakistani embassy in Kabul. The registration gap traces back to a regulatory upheaval: PMDC was dissolved in 2019 and replaced by the Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC), which was declared illegal in 2022, leaving a backlog of students without clear registration status.
The order comes amid a broader expulsion drive that has coincided with a dramatic plunge in relations between Islamabad and the Taliban government in Kabul. Pakistan launched its Illegal Foreigners' Repatriation Plan in late 2023, initially targeting undocumented migrants. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said in June that more than 2.4 million Afghan nationals had returned since the drive began. Human Rights Watch condemned the decision as "shockingly short-sighted and cruel," and two former Pakistani ambassadors to Afghanistan urged the government to reverse it.
For female students, the consequences are especially devastating. The Taliban's ban on women in higher education in Afghanistan means Pakistan was their only option to study medicine. Alishba, a medical student in Lahore, said, "I want to cry every minute. We are not dolls for them to play with. This is our life." While the court has provided temporary relief, students remain in limbo, barred from classes and hospital shifts, with an "emergency" bag packed in case they are forced to leave without warning.
Source: www.aljazeera.com