TORKHAM: As many as 28 Pakistani students, stuck in Afghanistan due to the border blockade were permitted to cross in Pakistan, border security officials said on Monday.
They said that after immigration and security clearance, the students entered Pakistan via the Torkham border.
Dozens of Pakistani students study in medical and other faculties in various Afghanistan universities.
However, they have been stranded there for the last three months, has multiplied their miseries, students said.
The returning learners thanked the Pak-Afghan authorities for the positive initiative.
Federal government fails to take action for stranded students in Afghanistan
Earlier on December 31, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, through its top spokesman, assured early repatriation of students stranded in Afghanistan but the federal government has yet to decide in this respect.
Due to prolonged tension between Pakistan and Afghanistan, over four thousand Pakistani students are stranded in Afghanistan. All of them are in a lack of resources aimed at depositing tuition fees, hostel or accommodation, and other expenditures.
For the last several weeks, these students have been crying for the opening of Pak Pak-Pak-Afghan borders or arrangements for their air lifting from Kabul into Islamabad. But no one is listening to these cries in the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad. Besides these Pakistani students stranded in Afghanistan, thousands, but even lakhs of Afghan students enrolled in educational institutions throughout the country also suffered due to the forced evacuation of Afghan nationals.
All these Afghan students, including those enrolled in universities and professional colleges, have already received No Objection Certificates from Pakistan. A great number of these students got Allama Iqbal, Quaid-e-Azam, and other scholarships announced by the host government from time to time. But now they are ahead with visa issues. The valid visas for students from Afghanistan have been made mandatory by Pakistan. Ironically, despite declaring valid visas as mandatory, Pakistan is reluctant to issue these visas. Not only these students, but some of the Pakistani courts also admitted petitions of these affected students from war-devastated Afghanistan.
During a media talk, advisor to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister for information, Mr. Shafi Jan Tuesday, said that Chief Minister Sohail Afridi is well aware of the issue about over four thousand students, stranded across the border in Afghanistan due to the closure of Pak Pak-Afghan border. In this respect provincial government has addressed a letter to the federal government for permission to allow these stranded students to return home. He said that the provincial government is hopeful for a positive response from the federal government, and the issue, according to him, could be settled shortly.
Besides students, thousands of other Pakistanis, mostly skilled and non-skilled labourers, are stranded throughout Afghanistan. Closure of Pak Pak-Pak-Afghan border on October 11th, 2025, generates a stock of hardships for rulers and people of both neighbouring countries. On one hand, it resulted in an end to centuries-old bilateral trade between the two countries, but it has also badly affected the divided families. Reports reveal that around half a million people from all over the country, mostly from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Baluchistan, are linked in relations with their close relatives.
The affected students were informed that due to tension between the two countries, they are losing contact with their family members. A large number of other Pakistani students, enrolled in medical, engineering colleges, and other educational institutions of Afghanistan, have also missed their annual and semester examinations due to the closure of the border and high fares of air services operations. The high-ups who are occupying important offices in the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad to listen to these sons of the soil.
Allow them to be Pakistani nationals. It is ironic that rulers, instead of addressing the genuine needs of these affected students, impose a ban on their returns, the issuance of visas, and other restrictions. Closure of Pak Pak-Afghan border has badly affected not only diplomatic relations but also bilateral trade and other socio-economic relations between the two countries. It is time for rulers in both Islamabad and Kabul to realise their prime responsibilities at this crucial stage.
