National - Page 2

Local Production Of Iron, Folic Acid Supplements May Curb Anaemia In 15m Pakistani Girls

ISLAMABAD: The local production of Weekly Iron and Folic Acid Supplementation (WIFAS) in adolescent doses could prevent around 15 million adolescent girls in Pakistan from suffering from iron deficiency anemia as ensuring sustainable access to these supplements could significantly reduce costs and lessen reliance on expensive imports, according to officials and nutrition experts. Iron deficiency anaemia is the leading cause…

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…

New Textbooks For Grade 1 To 5 To Be Delivered In Two Weeks

ISLAMABAD: The supply of newly developed textbooks for grade 1 to 5…

Children With Disabilities Showcase Talent At PNCA

Islamabad: The Directorate General of Special Education (DGSE), Ministry of Federal Education…

Uneducated and Unwell

Pakistan’s Economic Survey 2025-26 offers a useful yardstick to gauge the state of the country’s health and education sectors over the past year. The assessment, however, offers little cause for celebration. Beneath the government’s claims of gradual progress, Pakistan continues to rank among the poorest performers in South Asia on…

Literacy Rate Improves by 2pc, But education spending falls in 2025

ISLAMABAD: The literacy rate for individuals aged 10 and above in Pakistan rose from 61 to 63 percent, while spending on education faced a decline, according to Economic Survey 2025-26. It stated that male literacy was 73pc and female at 54pc, reflecting a gradual progress and narrowing gender gap. Urban…

Damaged Childhoods

CHILD abuse is so prevalent that the UN ranked Pakistan as the least safe country for children. Even so, more than five years after the Zainab Alert, Response and Recovery Act, 2020 — Pakistan’s first national child protection law — central provisos, including the agency for rapid alerts for missing…

Polio Progress

PAKISTAN’S latest sub-national polio campaign offers encouraging evidence that the country can still push back against a virus that has proved stubbornly difficult to eliminate. Reaching more than 18.6m children across 79 high-risk districts and achieving 98pc coverage is no small feat. Behind it was the dedication of over 163,000…

Pakistan Faces National Health Emergency: Panah

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan National Heart Association (Panah) has claimed that Pakistan has been facing a national health emergency that requires strong and sustained action. “National health data paints an alarming picture: cardiovascular diseases account for nearly one-third of all deaths in the country; diabetes affects approximately 31 percent of adults—one of…

Rabies Toll

EVERY year, rabies, the deadliest zoonotic disease, kills more than 59,000 people worldwide. In Pakistan, it is one of myriad public health challenges poised to become an epidemic. Between January and April, Sindh recorded a staggering 85,891 cases of dog bites. Last year, it logged over 285,000 cases with 22…

Child Nutrition Crisis

Pakistan’s child nutrition crisis has long been treated as a welfare issue when, in reality, it is a national emergency with generational consequences. To cater to this worsening crisis, Unicef has partnered with the University of Health Sciences to launch a capacity-building programme aimed at incorporating nutrition and child health…

The Polio Fight Goes On

It is enough of an ignominy that this country is one of only two, the other being Afghanistan, where polio still remains endemic. However, it is even more shameful that even those brave souls who are trying to eradicate this disease from the country are routinely the target of violent,…

Enrolled, But Not In School

Twenty million children are characterised as ‘out of school’ in Pakistan. This figure is alarming on its own. But there is a second, quieter crisis unfolding inside the school system that we’re neglecting. A crisis that never makes the headlines and a crisis no enrollment campaign will solve. When you…

Population Growth Can Become ‘Social Bomb’

• Ahsan Iqbal proposes incentives under NFC for provinces managing population growth • Projections say population can reach 389.9 million by 2050 even under a slow-decline scenario ISLAMABAD: Planning and Development Minister Ahsan Iqbal on May 12 warned that unchecked population growth could become a “social bomb” and a major…

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