Gaps - Page 8

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…

Rapid Population Growth most Serious Threat to National Security: Experts

ISLAMABAD: Sociologists and security experts described rapid population growth as one of the most serious threats to Pakistan’s national security, warning that large numbers of out-of-school and unemployed youth undermine human development and increase vulnerability to instability and extremism. The Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad (ISSI), in collaboration with the…

Introduction of New Exam System Draws Flak from Khyber Educationists

KHYBER: Educationists and representatives of teacher associations in Khyber have expressed reservations over simultaneous conducting of school-based assessment (SBA), semester and internal midterm examinations from primary to middle levels. They said that though SBA was beneficial in ascertaining and then removing flaws in educational system, it was implemented in a…

Rabies Prevention Programme hits Roadblock in Sindh

KARACHI: The chief secretary of Sindh was informed on December 21 that out of the Rs265 million allocated this year for mass dog vaccination and sterilisation, only Rs66.255m was released so far and only one centre was operational outside Karachi. The CS, Asif Hyder Shah, held a meeting on rabies…

Special Children’s School in Rawalpindi Faces Closure Risk

RAWALPINDI: Due to an acute shortage of government funds, the Government Institute for Slow Learners in Rawalpindi is facing serious difficulties, threatening the education of 120 young girls and boys enrolled at the school. The institute does not have its own government building and operates from rented premises. However, rent…

Promises, Gaps and Uneven Reforms

LAHORE: Punjab’s education sector is set to conclude 2025 as a year marked by ambitious claims, notable gaps and unresolved challenges. While the provincial government repeatedly highlighted reforms, digital initiatives and infrastructure plans, teachers, education experts and parents continued to question the impact on ground and sustainability of the measures.…

Child Abuse Cases Rise in Punjab as Convictions Remain at just 1%

LAHORE: Despite the Punjab Chief Minister’s repeated claims of considering women and children as her ‘red line,’ the reality is quite concerning. With the conviction rate for child offenders still extremely low, victims and their families are left without justice while the perpetrators are emboldened to continue their crimes. According…

13,000 Diabetic Children Die Every Year

Meanwhile, health experts on December 15 said an estimated 26,000 children and teenagers developed Type 1 diabetes in Pakistan every year but 13,000 or nearly half of them did not survive due to delayed diagnosis and the unavailability of life saving insulin. This information as shared at an awareness ceremony on…

‘Missed Diagnosis Costs Lives of 13,000 Kids with Diabetes Each Year’

Islamabad:An estimated 26,000 children and teenagers develop Type 1 diabetes in Pakistan every year but 13,000 or nearly half of them do not survive, health experts warned on December 15, saying that delayed diagnosis and the unavailability of life saving insulin are costing hundreds of young lives across the country.…

Punjab Reports Four Positive Polio Samples in November

LAHORE: Punjab Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) CoordinatorAdeel Tasawur shared encouraging progress in the fight against polio, announcing that only four environmental samples tested positive in November—two from Lahore and two from Rawalpindi. He delivered the update while chairing a meeting with representatives from all districts of Punjab ahead of the…

Private Hospitals’ Missing Data Hampering Polio Targets Analysis, Says Commissioner

KARACHI: Commissioner Karachi Syed Hassan Naqvi held a meeting with representatives of Private Hospitals and Clinics Association (PHCA), seeking their support to strengthen polio eradication efforts of the government. During the meeting, the commissioner highlighted the challenges the government had been facing in obtaining vaccination data from private hospitals, noting…