Pakistani students fear loss of academic year

Hundreds of students can’t go back to Afghanistan

Hundreds of Pakistani students studying in local universities and medical colleges in Afghanistan have been left stranded in Pakistan after the closure of Torkham border by the authorities.

These students returned to Pakistan due to Covid-19 pandemic and are now unable to return due to lack of policy.

Thousands of students are studying in Kabul University and medical colleges as well as other universities in the war-torn country and majority of them hail from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) province.

The real problem is the closure of Torkham border crossing by the National Command and Operation Control Centre (NCOC) as a policy was issued for the Afghan students in Pakistani universities but no policy was announced for the Pakistani students studying in Afghanistan.

Talking to The Express Tribune a student Sulaman Shah said that he is a student of Rokhan University, Jalalabad and he is also the president of Pakistani students union.

“In our university alone there are 203 Pakistani students and all of them returned to Pakistan two and a half months ago but now cannot go back,” he said, adding that their exams were starting from August 1 but due to the lack of medical standard operating procedures (SOPs), they are now allowed to cross the border into Afghanistan.

Another student Saeed Ahmad said that he was a medical student and there were 150 Pakistani students in the college where exams are starting from August 5.

“We are really worried about our exams and have been stranded in Pakistan. First the pandemic hit our academic year hard and now the lack of policy could ruin an entire year as we will not be able to sit in the exam,” he said.

Saeed said that all the students have complete travel documents and they should be allowed by the Pakistani authorities to go to Afghanistan.

When contacted Deputy Commissioner Mansoor Akhtar told The Express Tribune that the border has been completely closed for those crossing on foot from June 17 as per the policy due to the Covid-19.

“There is a policy in place for Afghan students studying in Pakistan on the Torkham border crossing but as far as Pakistani students are concerned, there is no policy in this regard,” he said, adding that due to this they are not allowed to go to Afghanistan.

Mansoor said that they had shared the concerns of the stranded students with the NCOC officials and the district administration is bound to implement the orders of the NCOC.

It is worth mentioning here that there are 3,000 Afghan students studying in Pakistani universities on Allama Iqbal Scholarship alone.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 30th, 2021.