Every generation faces a defining challenge. For our parents, it was nation-building. For ours, it may well be saving our children from the growing menace of drugs. Across Pakistan, a silent epidemic is unfolding. Narcotics have found their way into our schools, colleges and universities, threatening not only individual lives but the future productivity, stability and moral fabric of our nation. Every student lost to addiction represents a broken family, a shattered dream and
Child Rights in Focus
Sindh’s Directorate of Private Schools has launched an awareness campaign urging parents, teachers and communities to reject corporal punishment and adopt positive discipline, saying violence against children is abuse rather than a legitimate form of discipline. The campaign, launched by Additional Director of Private Schools Rafia Malla, aims to promote child protection and encourage safe, supportive learning environments. “Corporal punishment is not discipline; it is abuse,” Malla said, adding that physical punishment can leave
LAHORE: A man, who allegedly tortured his minor daughter in Ichhra area, has been arrested by the police here on July 12. The police took action after a social media video clip showed the suspect, later identified as Qurban, beating his minor daughter with a club and the girl crying in pain. As per police sources, 11-year-old girl ‘F’ was a house maid and her employer had accused her of stealing some valuables from
The Saudabad police have successfully recovered a kidnapped boy within hours after launching an intelligence-based operation, while authorities continue efforts to arrest the suspects involved in the abduction. According to police, unidentified suspects abducted 10-year-old Khizr, son of Danish, from outside his residence near RCD Ground within the limits of Saudabad Police Station on Thursday. The child was allegedly forced into a car before the kidnappers fled the area. Soon after receiving information about
LAHORE: The speeding cars that had killed a boy in Askari X on July 8 were driven by young men as opposed to earlier reports regarding gender identity of the rider. According to the FIR, a fatal accident took place on July 8 at 8am near Sector E of the Askari X and 10-year-old Subhan died on the spot while Abubakar and Ayan Babar were injured critically. As per the initial reports, the security
LAHORE: A girl found dead inside the washroom of a private tuition centre in the Ichhra area is believed to have died by suicide, according to the findings of the initial police investigation, although a murder case was registered against unidentified suspects on the complaint of her father. Police investigators privy to the investigations told that the victim, identified as 12-yearold ‘N’, had a documented history of attempting suicide nearly two years ago but
TOBA TEK SINGH: Police safely rescued a minor girl who was abducted from Rehmat Town by three bikers, after an “encounter”, during which one of the suspects was allegedly killed by his own accomplices, in Faisalabad on July 10. City Police Officer (CPO) Tanveer Hussain Tanvio says that as soon as the abduction of the five-year-old girl, Fajr Noor, by three bikers was reported to Ghulam Muhammadabad police, they pursued the suspects with the
SARGODHA: A 14-year-old girl died due to alleged negligence committed by a quack at Gulshan-i-Aziz Colony. The mother of the girl, Ariza Fatima, told Dawn on July 2, they took Ariza to the Rashid Medical Store on the Girls College Road due to pain in her toenail. At the drugstore, quack Nadeem bandaged it and instructed her to come the next day for dressing. The girl was taken to the store again the next
RAWALPINDI: Archbishop Dr Joseph Arshad, the Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Islamabad-Rawalpindi, has expressed deep concern over the rising incidents of child sexual abuse and violence in Pakistan, calling the situation a national tragedy that requires urgent and effective action. Addressing an event on the protection of children’s rights, Archbishop Arshad said cases of child sexual abuse in Pakistan continue to increase. He said the reported cases rose by eight per cent in
KARACHI: A judicial magistrate on July 9 remanded a man into police custody in a case pertaining to the alleged rape and murder of a six-year-old boy. The investigating officer of the case produced the suspect before the judicial magistrate (South) and sought his 14-day physical remand. The IO informed the court that a provision related to ‘rape’ had been added to the case. He said the suspect’s physical custody was needed for his
LAHORE: A class six girl student was found dead in the washroom of a tuition centre at Ichhra on July 9. The 10-year-old (N) had gone along with her two other sisters (13 and 6 years old) to a nearby house where two female teachers were giving tuition services to the students. According to the initial police reports, the three girls were daughters of an auto-rickshaw driver who told the media that he got
KARACHI: He called him uncle. He followed him trustingly. He let him buy him sweets. And in that trust, Hamza found his opening – during the chaos of a funeral, he took the six-year-old to his flat, raped him, strangled the life out of him, and then, unspeakably, violated his tiny lifeless body all over again. The sickening confession, delivered coldly during interrogation, has left investigators reeling and a neighbourhood shattered. The perpetrator of