Pakistan’s medical regulator orders Afghan students home mid-degree
More than 200 Afghan medical and dental students reportedly face expulsion after the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council cited missing registration, despite a Foreign Ministry assurance that valid-visa students should complete their studies.
Pakistan’s medical regulator has ordered institutions to send enrolled Afghan medical and dental students home, creating uncertainty for more than 200 students, including recipients of Pakistan’s Allama Iqbal Scholarship. The Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) issued the directive on 1 September and also barred new admissions, transfers and migrations of Afghan students for the current academic year.
The PMDC said only 22 Afghan students were registered with the regulator, including 14 graduates and eight students close to graduation. Students told Al Jazeera that registration was handled by universities and remained pending, while many had entered Pakistan through a scholarship administered by the Higher Education Commission and Pakistan’s embassy in Kabul.
Institutions in different parts of the country reportedly issued eviction notices within days of the directive. Some students were given less than three days, and in some cases 24 hours, to leave campus accommodation. Students said they had been barred from lectures and hospital shifts, although the extent of formal expulsions remains unclear and at least one college in Peshawar had not issued an eviction notice.
The dispute follows registration backlogs linked to upheaval among Pakistan’s medical regulators between 2019 and 2022. It also comes amid Pakistan’s broader expulsion drive against Afghan nationals, launched in late 2023 as relations with Afghanistan’s Taliban government deteriorated and cross-border security tensions rose.
Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Sajjad Haider Khan said students with valid visas and enrolment in degree programmes were supposed to remain in the country and finish their studies. The assurance appears to conflict with actions reported by some campuses. The Higher Education Commission did not respond to questions, while the PMDC referred Al Jazeera to its public statement.
Afghanistan’s Taliban government and Human Rights Watch condemned the decision, while two former Pakistani ambassadors urged its reversal. The dispute has particular consequences for female students, who face restrictions on higher education in Afghanistan and say returning could end their medical training.
