Pakistan orders Afghan medical students out — seven are in final year at KEMU alone

Pakistan Medical and Dental Council has ordered Afghan nationals enrolled in Pakistani medical colleges to return to Afghanistan drawing sharp condemnation from HRCP opposition parties and human rights groups.

WEBDESK – MEDIABITES

Seven Afghan medical students at King Edward Medical University in Lahore are in their final year of MBBS. They came to Pakistan legally. They obtained student visas. They paid tuition fees. They attended lectures and clinical rotations for years.

Now they have been told to leave within 24 hours.

The Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) reiterated a directive in a September 1 letter to medical and dental colleges ordering all Afghan nationals currently enrolled in Pakistani medical and dental institutions to return to Afghanistan. New admissions, transfers, and migration applications for Afghan nationals have also been suspended until further notice.

KEMU confirmed it had ordered 20 Afghan MBBS students to report within 24 hours. Seven are in their final year.

The Human Cost — 100 Students, Including Women

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) strongly condemned the directive, saying the decision had become a humanitarian issue involving young people whose education, safety, and future were at serious risk.

Afghan students in Lahore reported to HRCP that approximately 100 medical and dental students could be affected — including an estimated 20 to 40 women. Some students have approached the commission seeking legal assistance and safe shelter.

HRCP invoked the principle of non-refoulement — the international legal prohibition on returning people to places where they face serious risks of persecution or grave harm.

“Given the well-documented risks faced by Afghans returning to Afghanistan — and particularly by women — no student should be forcibly returned without an individual assessment of the risks they face,” HRCP said.

The commission called for repatriation orders to be suspended, students’ enrolment to be restored, and protection arrangements made for those requiring shelter.

Opposition Demands Reversal

Senate Opposition Leader Allama Raja Nasir Abbas called the PMDC notification politically motivated and demanded Afghan students be allowed to complete their degrees.

“There are students who have already reached the final year of their studies. Education is a fundamental human right,” Abbas said through the Tehreek-e-Tahafuz-e-Ayin-e-Pakistan alliance.

PTI leader and TTAP Secretary General Asad Qaiser said he had filed a case challenging the PMDC notification in the Peshawar High Court and would raise the issue in the National Assembly. He warned that hostility generated among ordinary people through such decisions could persist for years even after government relations normalise.

The Bigger Question

Pakistan has legitimate grievances with Afghanistan’s Taliban government over cross-border security. Those grievances are real and documented.

But a final-year MBBS student from Afghanistan who came to Pakistan legally, studied for years, and is weeks away from a medical degree is not a security threat. She is not a policy instrument. She is a human being whose future is being disrupted by a dispute between governments she has no control over.

The PMDC directive answers a political question by asking medical students to pay the price.

That is not policy. That is punishment of the wrong people.