Gaps - Page 18

Federal Health Minister Urges Action As Vaccination Refusals Hindering Polio Eradication

Federal Health Minister Syed Mustafa Kamal has expressed serious concern over vaccine refusals, stating that nearly 43,000 parents in Sindh — 42,000 of them in Karachi alone —have refused polio vaccination for their children, posing a major obstacle to the eradication efforts. He made these remarks while visiting the Provincial Emergency Operations Centre for Polio (EOC) in Sindh to assess…

Birth Registration Of Girls Remains Low

Majority of women and girls have no legal existence in the official systems PESHAWAR: Where limited access to registration centers, particularly in remote and underserved areas, can partly explain the low birth registration rate for girls in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, the social bias that confines women to the four walls of the…

Father Tells Heartbreaking Story Of Losing Two Children In Swat Tragedy

MARDAN: A man from Mardan recounted the tragic incident at the Swat…

CII To Deliberate On Mothers Milk Registry Today

ISLAMABAD: Senior child specialists from the Sindh Institute of Child Health and…

Soaring Fees Force Students To Drop Out

RAWALPINDI: The prices of textbooks from first year to post-graduation have risen drastically as the fees of both government and private colleges also continue to increase. In 2025, the increase in school expenses has set a record in Punjab’s history. Due to crushing inflation, parents are unable to enrol their…

Our Antibiotic Crisis

Antibiotics are among humanity’s most remarkable discoveries, emerging unexpectedly over the past century. The credit for this groundbreaking development goes to the Scottish physician and microbiologist, Alexander Fleming, who was studying fungi in 1928 when he inadvertently discovered what we now know as antibiotics. Following the discovery of penicillin, the…

Bonded Labour

Policymakers in Pakistan appear to be in a deep slumber, unmoved by one of the most pressing human rights crises festering within the country. A new study launched last week by the National Commission for Human Rights (NCHR), titled ‘Unveiling Exploitation and Abuse in the Brick Kilns of Punjab’, lays…

79 School Buildings Declared Hazardous in Rawalpindi

RAWALPINDI: As many as 79 buildings of government schools in Rawalpindi district have been declared dangerous. The local administration has asked the District Education Authority to conduct a survey and present a report about remaining school buildings. There are more than 1800 schools in the district and 323 of them…

Groups Of Children At High Risk Of Developmental Delays Identified

KARACHI: A study conducted by the Aga Khan University (AKU) has found that one in four children, aged three to eight, attending public schools in Karachi are at high risk of developmental delays. The developmental delays mean a child has not achieved expected age-related skills in one or more areas,…

Minor Boy Crushed To Death By Dumper in Malir

A two-and-a-half-year-old boy was killed in a dumper accident in Malir’s Millat Town on August 27. According to police, the incident occurred when a speeding dumper rammed into a motorcycle. The heavy vehicle ran over the motorcycle, crushing the child under its wheels. The deceased was identified as Aun. The…

Floods Indicate Governance Failure In Non-functioning Of PEPC

Former Chairperson of the Federal Flood Commission (FFC) Ahmed Kamal, while stressing the importance of improved monitoring, has called for province-specific forecasting systems and a nationwide telemetry network to provide real-time data and early warnings tailored to diverse regional contexts. He was addressing participants of a dialogue on “Climate risk…

80 Essential Medicines Brands Missing From Market

ISLAMABAD: At least 80 important medicines are not available in Pakistan, including 25 which have no substitutes, creating serious problems for patients suffering from diabetes, cancer, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, psychiatric illness, heart disease and for children needing vaccines. Doctors and pharmacists say the shortage of most-prescribed brands is now a health…

Public Schools Produce Abysmal Results

PESHAWAR: The recently announced matriculation results under the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE) Peshawar paint a bleak picture of learning outcomes in government schools, raising serious concerns about the government’s commitment to its own promise of prioritizing education. While the PTI-led administration boasts about increasing the education budget…

Education Faces Challenges In Garrison City

Rawalpindi, a city renowned for its historical roots and strategic importance, is undergoing a quiet yet significant transformation in its education sector. In the midst of rising enrollment numbers and growing awareness about the value of education, schools across the city are grappling with a mix of opportunities and challenges.…