Lahore: The Lahore High Court (LHC) has suspended orders by the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) requiring Afghan medical students to return to Afghanistan, temporarily allowing affected students to continue their studies in Pakistan.
Justice Khalid Ishaq issued the order on Friday while hearing petitions filed by 13 Afghan students enrolled at medical institutions in Lahore, including King Edward Medical University, Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Medical and Dental College and the Services Institute of Medical Sciences.
The court suspended the PMDC directives issued on July 31 and September 1 and directed that the petitioners be allowed to continue their education, sit examinations and return to their hostels. The court has sought responses from the PMDC, the Ministry of National Health Services and the vice chancellors of the institutions involved. The next hearing is scheduled for September 18.
The PMDC’s September 1 directive had instructed medical and dental institutions to facilitate the return of Afghan students already enrolled in Pakistan. It also barred new admissions, placements, transfers and migrations involving Afghan nationals during the current academic session.
The students challenged both directives, arguing that the council did not have lawful authority to remove them from recognised programmes in which they were already enrolled. They also argued that their rights to education, life and dignity had been affected by the decision.
The case has particular significance for students who have already spent years in Pakistan pursuing medical degrees. Among the petitioners are beneficiaries of the Higher Education Commission’s Allama Iqbal Scholarship Programme.
One petitioner, Nilofar Nikzad, said she had previously studied medicine in Afghanistan but was forced to abandon her education because of restrictions on women’s access to education there.
The PMDC’s lawyer opposed suspending the directives, arguing that the matter involved national security. The court nevertheless ordered the directives to remain suspended while the legal challenge is examined.
The development also comes amid uncertainty over the wider government policy towards Afghan students. Foreign Office spokesperson Sajjad Haider Khan said on Thursday that there was no government decision to return all Afghan students, adding that students enrolled in valid degree programmes with valid visas could remain in Pakistan and complete their education.
However, he referred questions about students affected specifically by the PMDC directive back to the medical regulator.
The court’s intervention therefore does not finally decide whether the PMDC directives are lawful. For now, however, it has stopped the immediate disruption of the petitioners’ education and moved the dispute from administrative action into judicial scrutiny.
