The move could affect hundreds of Afghan nationals enrolled in undergraduate medical and dental courses in Pakistan, including students who are close to completing their degrees.
According to a senior official in the health ministry, the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) has instructed medical and dental institutions not to provide admission or placement to Afghan students during the ongoing academic session. The directive also calls for Afghan students currently enrolled in such programmes to return to Afghanistan.
The official said the measure was introduced against the backdrop of worsening relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan and applies specifically to Afghan nationals. Students from other foreign countries are not covered by the order.
However, Pakistan’s Foreign Office said Afghan students who possess valid passports and residency documents could continue applying for visa extensions in line with existing regulations.
Foreign Office spokesperson Sajjad Haider Khan told the Dawn newspaper that under Pakistan’s Illegal Foreigner Repatriation Plan, foreign nationals staying in the country without valid passports and visas were considered to be residing illegally and could face deportation.
He added that Pakistani authorities were still processing visa-extension requests submitted by Afghan students under the country’s prevailing policies, rules and regulations.
King Edward Medical University (KEMU) in Lahore has become the first public-sector institution to implement the directive, a university official said.
The official told PTI that 22 Afghan students are currently enrolled at KEMU and have been given 24 hours to complete the required legal and administrative procedures.
Pakistan-Afghanistan tensions
The latest decision comes amid increasingly strained relations between the two neighbours. Islamabad has repeatedly alleged that the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) maintains sanctuaries in Afghanistan from where it operates against Pakistan. The Taliban administration in Kabul has rejected the allegation.
Relations deteriorated further following a series of explosions in Kabul on October 9 last year, followed by cross-border exchanges that resulted in casualties and damage on both sides.
Pakistan has hosted millions of Afghans over several decades as they fled successive rounds of conflict. The influx increased significantly after the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan in 2021, when hundreds of thousands of Afghans crossed into Pakistan.
Islamabad began a major crackdown and deportation campaign targeting undocumented foreigners in 2023. The drive was revived in April last year after Pakistan cancelled hundreds of thousands of residence permits issued to Afghan nationals.
In June, Pakistan’s interior ministry instructed authorities to arrest Afghan nationals found residing in the country without valid visas from July 10.
More than one million Afghan nationals were deported from Pakistan during the previous year alone, according to the figures cited in the report. The latest directive places Afghan medical and dental students directly in the midst of the widening measures affecting Afghan nationals in Pakistan.
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