WEBDESK - NAYADAUR
The Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) has ruled that Palestinian medical and dental students from Gaza will be permitted to undertake only clinical training in Pakistan, while access to house jobs, postgraduate training, registration and licensing will remain unavailable.
The decision was communicated to medical and dental institutions via a circular directing them to strictly adhere to the council’s policy.
According to the PMDC, permission for Palestinian students from Gaza to receive clinical training in Pakistan was granted on humanitarian grounds. The council stressed that the arrangement should not be interpreted as a permanent policy or as creating any permanent entitlement for the students.
The regulator said Palestinian medical and dental students cannot be provided registration or licensing facilities in Pakistan. It also said there is currently no legal route for foreign graduates to sit the National Registration Examination (NRE), and no policy allowing Palestinian or other foreign graduates to appear in the examination.
The council said requests seeking additional facilities for Palestinian students had already been rejected during its July 14 meeting. Applications seeking permission for house jobs, postgraduate training, registration, and licensing were also found to lack a legal basis, according to the decision.
The latest directive places clear limits on the scope of training available to the students. The PMDC warned medical and dental institutions that admitting Palestinian students or extending their training beyond the permitted clinical-training framework would constitute a violation of the law.
Institutions have also been told that they cannot provide Palestinian students with degrees or medical qualifications in Pakistan under the humanitarian clinical-training arrangement.
The council further instructed medical and dental institutions not to make new promises, commitments, or assurances to Palestinian or other foreign students regarding opportunities not covered by existing regulations.
The decision comes against the backdrop of efforts to provide educational and clinical opportunities to Palestinian medical students affected by the war in Gaza. The PMDC’s ruling, however, distinguishes humanitarian clinical training from the formal professional pathways available to graduates seeking to work as licensed doctors or dentists in Pakistan.
Under the decision, Palestinian students may therefore continue clinical training within the limits approved by the regulator, but cannot use the arrangement as a route toward a house job, postgraduate qualification, registration or medical licensing in Pakistan.
The PMDC has placed responsibility on medical and dental institutions to ensure that the restrictions are followed. Any expansion of the permitted training beyond clinical work could expose institutions to regulatory consequences, the council warned.
The decision effectively creates a limited pathway for Palestinian medical and dental students to gain clinical experience in Pakistan while preventing the humanitarian arrangement from becoming a broader route to professional practice or postgraduate medical education.
The PMDC’s position is clear: clinical training is permitted on humanitarian grounds, but house jobs, postgraduate training, registration, and licensing are not.