Pakistani court pauses expulsion order against Afghan medical students

Court grants a temporary reprieve

Lahore High Court suspended implementation of a Pakistani medical regulator’s directive that threatened to remove Afghan students from medical and dental colleges. The September 11 order allows affected students to return to classes, examinations and hostels while the court considers petitions challenging the regulator’s authority and procedure. The case is scheduled to return on September 18.

Pakistan’s Medical and Dental Council had instructed institutions on September 1 to send enrolled Afghan students home and halt new admissions or transfers. Al Jazeera reports that more than 200 Afghan students are enrolled in the affected programmes. Some colleges then issued hostel eviction notices with deadlines as short as 24 hours, even though several students had studied in Pakistan for years under government-backed scholarships.

Registration dispute meets regional politics

The regulator said foreign students were required to be registered with it and that only 22 Afghan students appeared on its register, including graduates and students close to graduation. Students counter that universities normally handle registration and that they entered legally through the Allama Iqbal scholarship programme. Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry separately said students with valid visas and degree registrations should be able to remain and complete their studies, leaving an unresolved contradiction between official positions.

The dispute is unfolding during a broader deterioration in relations between Islamabad and Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities. Pakistan has pursued a large repatriation campaign since 2023, while blaming militants based across the border for attacks. UNHCR has documented millions of Afghan returns from neighbouring countries and says returnees face an economy, public services and humanitarian system already under severe strain.

Women face the highest cost

For female medical students, forced return could end their education altogether. Taliban restrictions bar women from universities and medical training inside Afghanistan. United Nations reporting warns that the suspension of women’s medical education is reducing the future supply of female health workers, with consequences for maternal care and communities where women often cannot be treated by male clinicians.

The court’s intervention prevents immediate coercive measures but does not settle the students’ status. The regulator, Health Ministry and affected universities must now respond. The critical questions are whether registration failures can be corrected, whether scholarship commitments will be honoured, and whether students approaching graduation will be allowed to complete clinical training without further disruption.