Perspective - Page 2

Insights From the 2023 Census Report

The 2023 Census conducted by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics released its complete report in July 2024 indicates that the total population of Pakistan is 240 million out of which the population of children under 18 is 112 Million (47% of the total population). Children Population (under 18) Population under 18 Total Male Female Transgender Pakistan 112,472,700 58,099,978 54,370,121 2,601…

Juvenile Offenders in Punjab

The total number of convicted and undertrial juveniles imprisoned in various borstal institutes and jails of Punjab province was 645 as on 15 March 2022 (Prisons Department, Govt. of Punjab). Out of the total number of juvenile offenders, 81% (523) juveniles were on trial (under trial) and 19% were convicted…

Grace Marks by Sindh Government

In a move as surprising as it is contentious, the Sindh provincial…

deficiencies in Pakistan's education system

The Impact of Pakistan’s Education System

What PM Shehbaz Sharif blurted out recently isn’t quite a national secret.…

Reproductive Health Awareness

Parliament has done something this week that once seemed nearly impossible in Pakistan’s legislative culture. It passed a bill mandating reproductive health education in schools. The Federal Supervision of Curricula Amendment Bill, cleared by both houses and awaiting presidential assent, requires that students aged 14 and above in Islamabad’s educational…

Thalassaemia Testing

The National Assembly’s passage of the bill mandating premarital thalassaemia screening in Islamabad is a much-needed first step towards reducing the incidence of the potentially deadly blood disorder. The disorder, which is hereditary, has an unusually high rate of incidence in countries such as Pakistan and areas with large South…

Children at risk

Pakistan has once again found itself in the middle of a rapidly expanding public health challenge: childhood obesity. The latest findings from the World Obesity Atlas 2026 should ideally serve as a wakeup call for our health authorities. Since 2010, the prevalence of obesity among Pakistani children and adolescents has…

Education for Prosperity

Pakistan possesses a demographic profile that could either become its greatest asset or its most destabilising liability. Unfortunately, we are headed in the wrong direction. To understand the scale of the challenge, it is important to recognise the extent of Pakistan’s educational underinvestment. Unesco has advised a minimum of 4-6…

Starved Childhoods

EVERY day, in homes across Pakistan, millions of children are quietly being left behind. Not by flood or famine, earthquake or epidemic, but by the slow, invisible erosion of chronic undernutrition. The crisis unfolding concerns the 40 percent of Pakistani children under five who are stunted, the nearly 10m children…

Counting Children

FIRST the good news: on Feb 21, 2026, Sindh carried out its first real-time digital birth registrations of four newborns at public teaching hospitals — a long-awaited move towards reducing bureaucracy and improving archaic processes. The first paperless registrations were accomplished under a digital framework that integrated these hospitals with Nadra’s…

AI and the Child

Artificial intelligence is quietly shaping a generation’s thinking. Children are increasingly using AI tools to answer questions, complete assignments and tackle problems that once required reflection and research. What appears to be efficiency may also be altering the way thinking itself develops. This shift is unfolding within a generation shaped…

Polio, again

ANOTHER child has fallen victim to polio, this time in Sindh. The National Institute of Health this week confirmed that a four-year-old from Bello in Sujawal, Sindh, is infected with the wild poliovirus, making this the first case in 2026. The development brings back into the limelight Pakistan’s long fight…

Education Illusion

A recent federal government report on public financing in education contains embarrassing data on the low bar that we have set for the word ‘educated’, as some 77% of 10-year-olds surveyed across the country could not read or understand a simple text. Put another way, it means at least half…

Violence Is Not Strength

Mardangi, or masculinity, is frequently misunderstood in Pakistan. Instead of being associated with sensitivity, accountability, or respect, it is often linked to domination, repression and manipulation. Acts of violence, intimidation or assault against women are wrongly justified as expressions of mardangi. This misinterpretation is dangerous. We must be clear and…