Islamabad: The Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) has declined requests for registration, licensing and medical practice by 79 Palestinian medical students from Gaza, saying their stay in Pakistan was a one-time humanitarian arrangement for completion of clinical training and that they are expected to return home to serve their people.
A total of 150 Palestinian medical students from Gaza University arrived in Pakistan in February 2024 after their education was disrupted by the war, and were provided free clinical training at leading healthcare facilities, along with boarding and lodging.
Officials said the arrangement was made purely on humanitarian grounds to enable the students to complete the mandatory clinical component of their undergraduate medical education, which they could not continue in Gaza.
Of the 150 students, 71 have completed their training and returned to Gaza, while 79 remain in Pakistan and have sought registration, licensing and permission to practise medicine in the country, they added.
However, the PM&DC, in a circular issued to principals, deans and heads of medical and dental colleges, made it clear that the students could not be accommodated beyond the clinical training already allowed.
The council said the Palestinian students were facilitated only to complete their undergraduate clinical training at selected institutions in Pakistan in accordance with the requirements of their own degree-awarding institution in Gaza.
It said their primary qualifications were to be awarded by their parent institution, after which they were expected to return to Palestine, where their services were urgently needed.
The PM&DC said no medical or dental institution in Pakistan had been authorised to award, co-award or confer medical or dental qualifications on the Palestinian students.
The council maintained that the humanitarian placement was exceptional and could not be treated as a continuing policy, precedent or entitlement for admission, further clinical training or placement of any subsequent group of foreign students.
Officials said the remaining 79 students could not be registered or licensed to practise in Pakistan as they are foreign nationals and their medical college in Gaza is not recognised by the PM&DC for registration purposes.
The regulator also said foreign nationals cannot appear in the National Registration Examination, or NRE, which is a statutory examination under the PM&DC Act, 2022.
Under Section 18 of the law, the NRE is meant for Pakistani nationals holding primary medical or dental qualifications from foreign institutions as a prerequisite for registration with the PM&DC. The law does not provide for foreign nationals, including Palestinian graduates, to sit the examination.
The circular said there was no policy, relaxation or exemption allowing Palestinian or other foreign graduates to take the NRE, obtain registration, undertake house jobs or internships, enrol in postgraduate training, or practise medicine and dentistry in Pakistan.
It said the PM&DC Council considered the matter at its meeting on July 14, 2026, and found no legal or regulatory basis to grant house-job placement, postgraduate training, registration, licensing, NRE eligibility or any other facilitation beyond the clinical training already permitted.
The council directed all medical and dental institutions to strictly comply with the policy and warned that any admission, extension in training, house-job placement or recognition of qualification beyond the approved humanitarian arrangement would be treated as a violation of the PM&DC Act, 2022 and its regulations.
The PM&DC said Pakistan’s support for the Gaza students was meant to help them complete their education during an extraordinary humanitarian crisis, while the purpose of the arrangement remained their eventual return to Gaza to provide much-needed medical care to their own people.