The Sindh High Court (SHC) has directed the Pakistan Medical & Dental Council (PMDC) and others to file comments on a petition challenging the vires of the PMDC’s policy and regulations on foreign students.

Sameer Ahmed Siddiqui, who holds dual nationality, said in his petition that he had taken admission to the Dow International Medical College (DIMC) in the 2018 sessions as he was constrained to take admission on the foreign students quota.

Siddiqui said that the vires of regulations 2(f) and 2(g) of the PMDC Medical & Dental Undergraduate Education (Admission, Curriculum & Conduct) Policy & Regulations, 2023, were ultra vires to the Article 25 of the constitution and Section 4(1) of the Citizenship Act, 1951.

His counsel said that both the terms, dual national and overseas Pakistani, had been defined and he was treated as a foreign national, which in fact disentitled and deprived a Pakistani national from claiming the rights and privileges that otherwise were available to Pakistani nationals, including the right to take admission in local educational institutions.

He said that such vires amount to discriminating Pakistan-born citizens having dual nationality. The rights and privileges otherwise available to Pakistani nationals/citizens and guaranteed under the constitution could not be withdrawn, particularly through definition clauses under any enactment or rules in violation of the constitution, he added.

He said the petitioner was constrained to make a payment of annual fees in the sum of $17,000 when local students were making payments of Rs60,000 a year.

The petitioner was also burdened unreasonably on account of huge fluctuation in the dollar rate in Pakistan, he addedThe high court was requested to declare the rules 2(f) and 2(g) of the PMDC’s policy and regulations as ultra vires the constitution and direct the DIMC to charge the petitioner the same tuition fees as a local Pakistani student was charged.

A counsel for the PMDC sought time to file comments on the petition. A division bench of the SHC headed by Chief Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi directed the PMDC and other respondents to file comments on the petition by next date of hearing.

The high court had earlier observed that since the vires of the law, and rules and regulations were also challenged, notices should be issued to the attorney general of Pakistan and Sindh advocate general.