LAHORE: On Friday, the Lahore High Court (LHC) put a hold on directives issued by the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) that had instructed Afghan medical students to head back to Afghanistan.
Justice Khalid Ishaq issued the ruling while hearing petitions brought by 13 Afghan students studying at various Lahore institutions, among them King Edward Medical University, Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Medical and Dental College, and the Services Institute of Medical Sciences.
The legal action followed a September 1 notification from the PMDC instructing enrolled Afghan medical students at Pakistani colleges to leave the country. That same notice also prohibited medical and dental colleges from admitting or placing Afghan students during the ongoing academic session.
Citing both the September 1 notice and an earlier one issued July 31, the students asked the court to rule both directives unconstitutional, unauthorized, and void from the outset.
During Friday’s proceedings, the students’ counsel, Advocate Asad Jamal, argued that his clients had been penalized without being given a chance to respond, and that the council had overstepped its authority under the PMDC Act, violating the students’ rights to education, life, and dignity.
He maintained that the petitioners’ fundamental rights needed to be upheld in line with the law.
Representing the PMDC, lawyer Haris Azmat pushed back against suspending the directives, framing the issue as one of national security.
Justice Ishaq dismissed this reasoning and ordered a halt to both the September 1 and July 31 directives. He additionally instructed that the students be permitted to continue their studies, take their exams, and return to their hostel accommodations.
The court also requested formal responses from the parties named in the case — the PMDC, the health ministry, and the heads of the relevant medical universities and colleges — ahead of the next hearing scheduled for September 18.
The petitions
The 13 petitioners — seven women and six men — filed their case through Advocate Jamal on Thursday. They stated they had been forced out of their colleges under PMDC instructions and contended that neither the council nor the colleges had the legal standing to expel them.
They argued that the PMDC, despite being the primary regulatory authority under the 2023 PMDC Act, was still bound to operate within constitutional limits and Pakistan’s international commitments.
According to the students, nothing in the 2023 law or in constitutional and international norms gave the council the right to act arbitrarily — especially against students who had already invested years in their medical training in Lahore and elsewhere in Punjab.
Petitioner Nilofar Nikzad said she had already finished two years of medical school in Afghanistan before Taliban-imposed restrictions on women’s education forced her to stop.
The students described how the abrupt process had left them evicted from their hostels, without housing, and uncertain about their academic futures. They said the distress caused by the PMDC’s directives had pushed Afghan medical students nationwide to turn to the courts as a final option.
The petitioners want the LHC to formally strike down both PMDC directives — from July 31 and September 1 — as unconstitutional and unlawful.
Several of the petitioners are recipients of scholarships through the Higher Education Commission’s (HEC) Allama Iqbal Scholarship Programme.
Back in July 2025, the HEC had hosted a welcome reception for roughly 350 Afghan students arriving to study in Pakistan.
Earlier in the week, a health ministry official told Dawn that an “in principle” decision had already been reached to send Afghan medical students in Pakistani universities home, citing strained relations between Islamabad and Kabul.
FO denies blanket return order for Afghan students
Speaking on Thursday, Foreign Office spokesperson Sajjad Haider Khan rejected the notion that the government had mandated the departure of all Afghan medical students, though he did not directly address whether those affected by the PMDC directive had valid visas or registrations.
“There is no such decision by the government to return all the Afghan students,” Khan told journalists during a regular briefing in Islamabad, adding that Afghan students could remain in the country provided they were enrolled in a legitimate degree program and held valid visas.
“Of course, if a student is enrolled in Pakistan in a valid degree programme and holds a valid visa, he or she can stay here and complete their education,” he said.
Pressed further on the specific students impacted by the PMDC’s directive, Khan deferred to the regulatory body itself.
“Going back to your question, the PMDC has issued the letter. I would refer you to the PMDC,” he said, suggesting reporters direct visa- and registration-related questions to the council.
“There is no blanket ban on Afghan students,” he reiterated, stressing that those with valid visas and enrollment in recognized programs would be able to finish their education in Pakistan.
Advocate Jamal had earlier posted on X, claiming that the PMDC’s directives failed to distinguish between students with valid visas and those without lawful stay.
Separately, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) criticized the PMDC’s decision, cautioning that what began as an education policy risked becoming a humanitarian emergency. The commission estimated that around 100 Afghan medical and dental students in Lahore alone would be impacted, including somewhere between 20 and 40 women.
Background on deportations
Pakistan has hosted millions of Afghans over the decades, many fleeing conflict, with a fresh wave arriving after the Taliban’s takeover in 2021.
A deportation campaign that began in 2023 was reactivated in April of the following year, when the government canceled hundreds of thousands of residency permits held by Afghans and threatened arrest for those who remained.
A Senate Standing Committee on Kashmir Affairs, Gilgit-Baltistan and States and Frontier Regions (SAFRON) was told that more than a million Afghan nationals were deported from Pakistan last year alone.
Interior Ministry and Chief Commissionerate for Afghan Refugees officials informed the committee that a total of 1,155,221 Afghan nationals were deported in 2025.
This figure included 163,429 individuals holding proof of registration cards, 74,943 holding Afghan citizen cards, 509,671 undocumented persons, and 407,178 who returned voluntarily.
Data from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) indicates that the pace of returns has accelerated this year, with close to 150,000 Afghans going back home from Pakistan and Iran by mid-February 2026. This brings the total number of Afghans who have returned from these two countries since October 2023 to 5.4 million.
In June, the Interior Ministry directed authorities to immediately detain any Afghan national found living in Pakistan without a valid visa.