More Afghan graduates move LHC against PMDC’s return orders

More Afghan graduates move LHC against PMDC’s return orders

LAHORE: Five Afghan graduates of Lahore’s Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Medical & Dental College on Thursday approached the Lahore High Court (LHC) to strike down Pakistan Medical & Dental Council (PMDC) directives ordering their return to Afghanistan. The petitioners – Nazrana, Azatullah Stanikzai, Hashmatullah Stanikzai, Ali Talash and Abdullah Mansoor – say they completed a five-year MBBS programme in the 2021-2026 session under the HEC-administered Allama Iqbal Scholarship, but PMDC has left their registration applications undecided for months. Filed through Advocate Asad Jamal, the petition names PMDC, the Federation of Pakistan, the Ministry of National Health Services, the Higher Education Commission, the University of Health Sciences, and the Punjab health department as respondents, alongside the medical college itself. The petition argues, without PMDC registration the graduates cannot enrol in the mandatory year-long house job required to practice medicine, effectively stalling their careers despite having fulfilled their academic requirements. Compounding this, it says, the council issued notifications on July 31 and Sept 1, 2026 directing medical colleges to facilitate the deportation of Afghan students and process their departure from Pakistan - followed by a Sept 9 notification from the college itself moving to expel the petitioners. The petition cites a media report quoting a health ministry official describing an “in-principle” decision to send Afghan medical students home amid tensions between Islamabad and Kabul. It argues that PMDC’s own 2025 regulations grant graduating students a right to a house job placement at their affiliated teaching hospital, and that the council’s governing 2022 Act does not empower it to order deportations. It further contends that the orders are discriminatory, particularly against women, and violate constitutional guarantees of due process, equality and dignity under Articles 4, 9, 10A, 14 and 25, as well as Pakistan’s obligations under international treaties. The petition asks the court to declare the impugned orders and the college’s expulsion notification void, and direct the respondents to issue degree certificates and register the petitioners for house jobs. Justice Khalid Ishaq will take up the petition on Friday (today) along with other pending petitions wherein the court had already suspended the PMDC’s directives to the extent of 13 petitioners/students. Published in Dawn, September 18th, 2026