For female students, the move would spell the end of their careers and prospects under Taliban rule

An educational lifeline for young Afghan women banned by the Taliban from training as doctors in their homeland is in jeopardy after Pakistan’s medical authorities tried to have them expelled.

Several hundred Afghan female students studying across the border in Pakistan have been threatened with removal, amid rising tensions and tit-for-tat exchanges between the neighbours.

The Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) which regulates medical education earlier this month ordered medical and dental colleges with Afghan students to kick them out.

Within days, major institutions including King Edward Medical University (KEMU), Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Medical and Dental College, and the Services Institute of Medical Sciences, had ordered Afghan students to leave.

The nationwide order was estimated to have affected around 1,000 Afghan students, with 35 per cent of those thought to be female…