PHC stays deportation of 86 Afghan medical students

Peshawar High Court has temporarily halted the deportation of 86 Afghan medical students studying in public sector colleges in the province, permitting them to continue their education. A bench of Justice Wiqar Ahmad and Justice Farah Jamshed issued notices to relevant authorities, including the federal interior secretary, immigration director, and Pakistan Medical and Dental Council’s registrar, requesting their input on a joint petition filed by the 86 students, including Selsela Dost and others.

The court set a hearing date of October 12, barring their deportation until then. "They shall be allowed to continue their studies, if there is no other reason for discontinuation," the bench emphasized. The court also combined this petition with an earlier one filed by Afghan student Seemen Noori on the same issue, granting them the right to pursue their medical studies in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The petitioners challenged the legality of two PMDC orders issued on July 31 and September 1, 2026, which required them to discontinue their studies and leave Pakistan immediately. They sought court directives for medical and dental colleges to allow them to continue their studies uninterrupted, aside from the impugned PMDC letters/circulars or the pending visa-extension applications.

Their advocate, Waseemuddin Khattak, stated that they had been admitted against Afghan quota seats into various medical and dental colleges across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and were studying in different professional years. The PMDC had canceled their admissions following its order on September 11, 2026, which suspended the operation of the impugned order.

Khattak argued that his clients had been wrongfully deprived of their education, life, and dignity due to the PMDC's overreach of its jurisdiction under the PMDC Act, 2023. He emphasized that the petitioners' fundamental rights should be upheld in accordance with the law and that PMDC's powers must be exercised within constitutional bounds and Pakistan's international legal obligations.

The court's decision on September 23 also halted law enforcement agencies from arresting or deporting 17 Afghan doctors serving at two private hospitals in the provincial capital, allowing them to continue their postgraduate training.