September 15, 2026
By Aitzaz Ibrahim
LAHORE
The Sindh High Court (SHC) has suspended the notices concerning the return of Afghan medical students back to Afghanistan, only days after the Lahore High Court (LHC) granted similar interim relief against the same PMDC directives. A two-member bench headed by Justice Adnan-ul-Karim Memon also barred coercive action against petitioners Arifa, Hania Nazari and Syed Banaras until the next hearing on September 29.
The three are final-year MBBS students at Karachi’s Dow Medical College (DMC) under the government-funded Allama Muhammad Iqbal Scholarship Programme, and hold valid Pakistani study visas and are expected to graduate in April 2027. They challenged PMDC directives issued on July 31 and September 1 and a subsequent DUHS notice dated September 10. The court issued notices to the respondents, as well as the Additional Attorney General and Advocate General Sindh, for September 29.
Under the PMDC directives issued on July 31 and reiterated on September 1, medical institutions were asked to facilitate the repatriation of enrolled Afghan students to Afghanistan and barred from admitting, transferring or facilitating Afghan nationals during the current academic session. Following the directives, DUHS on September 10 instructed Afghan students to collect their documents and NOCs and coordinate with the hostel administration for their departure.
What happened in court
During the preliminary hearing, petitioners’ lawyers Barrister Salahuddin Ahmed and Jibran Nasir told the SHC that the three final-year MBBS students held valid Pakistani visas and were close to completing their degrees. They argued that no show-cause notice or opportunity of hearing was provided, while the challenged notices were vague and did not specify the policy under which the students were being required to leave Pakistan. Counsel maintained that revoking their admissions and forcibly deporting them at this stage would seriously jeopardise their careers. The court suspended the challenged notices until the next hearing on September 29 and restrained the authorities from taking any coercive action against the three petitioners.
LHC order cited before SHC
The petitioners’ lawyers also cited the Lahore High Court’s September 11 order, where Justice Khalid Ishaq had suspended the same July 31 and September 1 PMDC directives for 30 Afghan medical students and allowed them to continue their studies, examinations, clinical rotations and hostel accommodation. During the LHC hearing, PMDC counsel Barrister Haris Azmat argued that the students lacked valid visas and termed it a state security issue, while Justice Ishaq questioned why they were being sent back after years of medical education and remarked that they should be allowed to complete their degrees first. The SHC subsequently suspended the challenged notices until September 29, barred coercive action against the three petitioners and issued notices to the respondents and relevant law officers.
Lawyers question basis for repatriation
Speaking to Voicepk, Barrister Salahuddin Ahmed, counsel for the three students, said the decision to send them back without following any rule or procedure is unconstitutional and illegal.
“These are students who have studied here for years, and now, when they are close to completing their degrees, they are being told to go back,” Ahmed told Voicepk.
He questioned the policy basis for requiring the students to leave at this stage, saying PMDC had provided no explanation for it.
The petition also challenges PMDC’s authority to issue directions for the repatriation of enrolled foreign students. It argues that PMDC’s statutory role concerns regulation of medical and dental education and that it has no authority to alter visa status or order the departure of foreign students solely on the basis of nationality.
Advocate Jibran Nasir, also representing the petitioners, told Voicepk that he agreed to file the petition because he believed Pakistan should be a good host and its foreign policy should not be “fickle or vindictive”.
“Producing doctors means helping humanity and investing in people. Hostilities are between Govt’s not between people and hence we should never stop investing in people and lose our goodwill,” Nasir said.