• Ask govt to allow their children to continue medical education in Pakistan
• Call on PMDC, HEC, health ministry to formulate special migration policy

THATTA: Parents of Pakistani medical students who recently returned from Iran due to escalating regional tensions have appealed to the federal government to allow their children to continue their medical education in Pakistan.

Speaking at a press interaction at a local press club on Wednesday, Khadim Hussain Dahot, Nawaz Ahmed, Ali Imran and other parents of the affected students, along with members of a committee representing them, urged authorities to introduce an emergency policy to safeguard the students’ academic future.

They said several hundred Pakistani students enrolled in MBBS and BDS programmes at Iranian universities had been forced to suspend their studies and return home due to the uncertain security situation in the region.

According to the parents, many students had already completed several years of study at universities in cities such as Tehran and Shiraz and were approaching the clinical phase of their medical education.

“Our children have spent years studying abroad and are now facing academic uncertainty due to circumstances beyond their control,” one parent said.

The parents appealed to the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC), the Ministry of National Health Services, Reg­ulations and Coordination, and the Higher Education Commission (HEC) to introduce a special migration policy for students returning from Iran.

They demanded that Pakistani students who had completed at least their first semester at Iranian medical universities be allowed to continue their studies in Pakistan without strict regulatory requirements or additional eligibility criteria.

The parents also proposed that the PMDC allocate more than 3,000 seats as a special quota for affected students in medical colleges across Sindh and Punjab, including both public and private institutions.

They said the issue had also been raised in the National Assembly, but the PMDC had yet to issue a formal notification or policy regarding the placement of students returning from Iran.

Published in Dawn, March 14th, 2026