Pakistan Orders Expulsion of Afghan Medical Students, Passing the Cost of State Conflict onto Ordinary Seekers of Education

According to the international edition of The Hindu, the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council on September 9 issued an order to medical and dental colleges across the country: ban admissions of Afghan students for the current academic year and require enrolled Afghan students to return to Afghanistan. A senior official at Pakistan's Ministry of Health said the directive targets only Afghan nationals and does not affect students of other nationalities. The ban may affect hundreds of Afghan students currently pursuing undergraduate medical and dental degrees in Pakistan, some of whom are nearing graduation.

King Edward Medical University (KEMU) in Lahore became the first public institution to implement the order. An official at the university told Press Trust of India (PTI): "22 Afghan students are currently enrolled at KEMU, and they have been asked to complete the necessary legal and administrative procedures within 24 hours."

However, Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs distanced itself from the implementation-level language. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Sajjad Haider Khan told the local Dawn newspaper that under Pakistan's "Illegal Foreigners Repatriation Plan," any foreigner without a valid passport and visa is considered to be residing illegally and should be repatriated; but he also stated: "Pakistani authorities are processing visa extension applications from Afghan students in accordance with our current policies and regulations."

The immediate expulsion order at the institutional level coexists with the Foreign Ministry's statement of "processing extensions according to regulations," exposing a rupture in policy implementation; and those bearing the consequences of this rupture are the named Afghan students sitting in classrooms, not any of the signatories. The total number of affected students has not been released by the Pakistani side, and whether and how the directive applies to private medical colleges likewise remains unclear.

The official background of the directive has been attributed to the deteriorating relationship between Pakistan and the Afghan Taliban authorities. Pakistan has long accused the banned Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) of launching attacks from bases inside Afghanistan — a charge denied by the Afghan Taliban authorities. A series of explosions in Kabul on October 9 last year, followed by cross-border exchanges of fire that caused casualties and property damage, further deteriorated bilateral relations.

Over the past few decades, millions of Afghans have entered Pakistan seeking refuge, with hundreds of thousands pouring in after the Afghan Taliban returned to power in 2021. Pakistan launched a large-scale repatriation campaign targeting undocumented foreigners in 2023, and relaunched it last year after revoking residence permits for hundreds of thousands of Afghans. In June this year, Pakistan's Interior Ministry ordered the arrest of Afghans in Pakistan without valid visas starting July 10; in the past year alone, more than one million Afghans have been expelled by Pakistan.

The mass arrests and deportations targeting undocumented residents are aimed at those without legal status; the immediate removal of credentialed students from medical colleges disrupts the lives of those legally enrolled under the regulations. When geopolitical friction between governments cannot be eased through diplomatic negotiations, it is the individuals without bargaining power who are the first to have their studies and residency status cut off.