Court orders students be allowed to continue their studies, sit their examinations, return to their hostels
Lahore High Court building. FILE: PHOTO
LAHORE:
The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Friday suspended the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council’s (PMDC) directives ordering Afghan medical students to return to Afghanistan.
The PMDC reiterated the directive in a letter to medical and dental colleges on September 1, directing institutions to comply with earlier policy instructions. It said no admission, placement, transfer, migration or other facilitation of Afghan nationals would be permitted during the current academic session, while Afghan nationals already enrolled in medical and dental programmes would be required to return to Afghanistan.
King Edward Medical University (KEMU) in Lahore became one of the first public universities to act on the directive on Tuesday, ordering 20 Afghan MBBS students to report within 24 hours. Seven of the students are in their final year. The university is processing their no-objection certificates and other formalities to facilitate their departure.
A day earlier, 13 Afghan medical students filed petitions before the LHC challenging PMDC directives. They argued that the council had exceeded its legal authority and asked the court to declare the directives illegal and unconstitutional.
Justice Khalid Ishaq passed the order while hearing petitions filed by 13 Afghan medical students studying at medical institutions in Lahore, including King Edward Medical University (KEMU), Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Medical and Dental College and the Services Institute of Medical Sciences.
Read: 13 Afghan medical students challenge PMDC repatriation directives in LHC
The court also sought replies from the Ministry of Health, PMDC and vice-chancellors of the concerned institutions by September 18.
During the hearing, counsel for the petitioners argued that the students had been condemned unheard and that their rights to education, life and dignity had been violated. He contended that the PMDC had exceeded its authority under the PMDC Act, 2022.
Opposing the suspension, the PMDC counsel argued that the matter involved national security.
Justice Ishaq rejected the argument and suspended the operation of the PMDC directives issued on July 31 and September 1. The court further ordered that the students be allowed to continue their studies, sit their examinations and return to their hostels.
Afghan students approach LHC
The 13 petitioners, comprising seven women and six men, had challenged the PMDC directives ordering them to return to Afghanistan. They stated in their petitions that they were enrolled at different medical institutions in Lahore and had been removed from their respective colleges on the PMDC’s instructions.
The students argued that the PMDC, despite being the top regulatory body under the PMDC Act, 2023, did not have the legal authority to expel them.
They contended that the council’s powers had to be exercised within the bounds of the Constitution and Pakistan’s international legal obligations. Neither the 2023 Act nor constitutional or international principles, they argued, allowed the council to act arbitrarily, particularly against students who had already spent years pursuing medical education in Lahore and elsewhere in Punjab.
Many of the petitioners were beneficiaries of scholarships under the Higher Education Commission’s (HEC) Allama Iqbal Scholarship Programme. In July 2025, the HEC held a reception to welcome around 350 Afghan students arriving in Pakistan to pursue their studies.
One of the petitioners, Nilofar Nikzad, said she had completed two years of medical studies in Afghanistan before being forced to abandon her education there because of Taliban restrictions on women’s access to education.
Read more: Afghan medical students in limbo
The petitioners said the sudden implementation of the directives had resulted in their eviction from hostels by their respective colleges, leaving them without accommodation while their academic futures remained uncertain.
They said the PMDC directives had caused significant distress among Afghan medical students studying across Pakistan and prompted them to approach the courts as a last resort.
The petitioners asked the LHC to adjudicate on the two PMDC directives issued on July 31 and September 1 and declare them “illegal and unconstitutional”, without lawful authority and void from inception.
“The impugned orders are discriminatory against women and all other Afghan students present in Pakistan,” one of the petitions claimed.
The PMDC directives had drawn strong criticism from rights groups and political leaders, who urged the government to allow Afghan medical and dental students to complete their degrees.
FO clarifies PMDC’s stance
The Foreign Office on Thursday rejected reports that Pakistan had decided to expel all Afghan students, saying those enrolled in recognised degree programmes and holding valid visas would be allowed to remain in the country and complete their education.
“There is no such decision by the government to return all the Afghan students,” the Foreign Office spokesperson said, clarifying that students enrolled in recognised degree programmes with valid visas could stay and complete their education.
He said Afghan students without valid visas or those not enrolled in recognised degree programmes would have to return to Afghanistan. Students who were neither registered at a university nor holding valid visas would also fall into this category, he added.
The council separately said that more than 200 Afghan students had been identified as studying medicine in Pakistan, but only 22 were currently registered with the PM&DC. Of those, 14 had completed their degree programmes, while the remaining eight were expected to graduate next year.
The PM&DC said verification of the remaining 176 students was under way and that the figure was subject to final confirmation. It maintained that its regulatory requirements applied equally to all foreign nationals and were not based on nationality.
Directive strongly criticised
The PMDC directive has drawn strong criticism from rights groups and political leaders, who have urged the government to allow Afghan medical and dental students to complete their degrees.
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) described the move as “a humanitarian crisis affecting young people whose education, safety and futures are at immediate risk”, calling for the repatriation orders to be suspended and affected students’ enrolment restored.
Leader of the Opposition in the Senate Allama Raja Nasir Abbas called the directive “entirely politically motivated” and said it was “tantamount to harming” future generations. PTI leader Asad Qaiser described the expulsion of Afghan students as “extremely ridiculous”, saying, “You are playing with the future of the students.”
The HRCP also warned that Pakistan’s security concerns and strained ties with Afghanistan could not justify “collectively punishing students”, while Abbas cautioned that the policy could damage Pakistan’s reputation as a destination for international students.
