Islamabad says processing Afghan student visa extension applications under existing rules

• Foreign Office spokesperson says Afghan students without valid visas and passports are liable to deportation
• Statement comes after medical universities in Punjab ordered Afghan students to complete departure formalities

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is continuing to process Afghan student visa extension applications in accordance with existing rules, its foreign office said on Wednesday, as universities in Punjab move to implement an order from the country’s medical regulator requiring Afghan students to leave

At least 43 Afghan students at two leading medical universities in Punjab’s capital Lahore, including 26 women, were ordered this week to complete departure formalities, according to university directives seen by Arab News

The directives followed a Sept. 1 letter from the Pakistan Medical & Dental Council (PM&DC) reiterating that Afghan nationals already enrolled in medical or dental programs in Pakistan were required to return to Afghanistan

The PM&DC order prompted emotional appeals from Afghan students to allow them to complete their degrees, while the Afghan embassy in Islamabad said it amounted to “forced deportation” of students who had lawfully entered Pakistan

“Our relevant institutions continue to process visa extension applications of Afghan students in Pakistan in line with our existing policy, rules and regulations,” Sajjad Haider Khan, a Pakistani foreign office spokesperson, told Arab News

“As per the Illegal Foreigner Repatriation Plan (IFRP), stay of any foreign national without valid visa and passport is illegal and the concerned individual is liable to deportation.”

About 1,000 Afghan students are enrolled in educational institutions across Punjab, including around 400 medical students, according to an Afghan embassy spokesperson

The students have appealed to Pakistani authorities to allow those already enrolled to complete their degrees, particularly women who say they would have limited or no prospects of continuing higher education if they returned to Afghanistan

“For a medical or dental student, being forced to leave or discontinue their education is not simply a matter of leaving a university. It could mean losing years of hard work, significant family investment, and the future of a young person,” an Afghan woman student, who requested anonymity, told Arab News on Tuesday

“For us, particularly Afghan female students, returning to Afghanistan would mean losing the opportunity to continue our education,” she said

“Afghan girls and women have been deprived of access to schools and universities for nearly five years, and under the current circumstances, we have no opportunity to continue our university education in Afghanistan.”

The dispute comes against the backdrop of Pakistan’s broader campaign to repatriate Afghan nationals and a sharp deterioration in relations between Islamabad and Afghanistan’s Taliban government over a surge in militancy in Pakistan’s western regions bordering Afghanistan

Pakistan launched its Illegal Foreigners Repatriation Plan in 2023 and has since intensified measures targeting foreigners, mostly Afghans, staying in the country without valid documents

Source: www.arabnews.pk