KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) directed the provincial government on Thursday to constitute a committee for an “independent, impartial and comprehensive” inquiry into the HIV outbreak among children at Karachi’s Kulsum Bai Valika Hospital. A two-member SHC bench, headed by Justice Adnanul Karim Memon and comprising Justice Muhammad Jaffer Raza, issued the directive as it announced its reserved judgement on a plea seeking an independent inquiry, registration of a case and lifelong medical treatment as
Child Rights in Focus
Pakistan’s education crisis is not simply a crisis of outdated textbooks. It is a crisis of an outdated educational philosophy. While the world is moving towards AI, automation and knowledge-based industries, too many of our classrooms remain organised around memorisation, rote learning and examination scores. We have modernised the language of education, but have we modernised the way we teach children to think? The question is simple: are we preparing students to reproduce information,
Punjab has recorded a decline in the prevalence of stunting among children from 36 per cent in 2018 to 27%, while wasting has dropped from 15% to 10%. However, the fact that more than one in four children remain stunted keeps infant feeding and maternal nutrition high on the provincial health agenda. The figures were presented at a seminar organised by UNICEF Pakistan in collaboration with the Punjab health authorities to mark World Breastfeeding
TOBA TEK SINGH: Faisalabad’s Saddar police arrested on Monday a woman and her friend for poisoning her husband to death and also administering poison to her three minor daughters who were saved by doctors. Complainant Muhammad Tahir alleged in his FIR that on July 23, his brother Azhar Ali died mysteriously at his house in Sitara Park locality on Jaranwala Road in Faisalabad while his three nieces lost consciousness. He added that they came
GUJRAT: A 17-year-old girl, who was allegedly gang-raped by five suspects, later “died by suicide” under mysterious circumstances at Sanda village in Mandi Bahauddin district in Miana Gondal police precincts on Monday. The complainant, Zulfiqar Ahmed, of Sanda village told police that he had gone to a local shop to buy something, leaving his daughter “M” (17) alone at his house. He said that when he returned, he found his daughter lying dead. Explaining
ISLAMABAD: With Pakistan’s population having crossed 240 million and a median age of just 19, policymakers, health experts and researchers warned that the country’s demographic trajectory demands an urgent shift from short-term fixes to robust, evidence-based strategies. The stakeholders were speaking at the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) seminar titled “Population Growth and Policy Coherence in Pakistan: Challenges and Pathways” held here on Monday. The seminar was steered by a wide-ranging discussion on institutional
LAHORE: A three-year-old boy who had gone missing from Kahna was found dead in a sewage pond in Bilal Town, Naseebabad. The deceased, Muhammad Hasnain’s father, Sabir, who had lodged a kidnapping case after he went missing. According to the family, the child was visiting his maternal uncle’s home from where he had gone out at night and had not returned. After being informed about the corpse, police and forensics teams collected evidence before
BAJAUR: Residents of Seeda Shah, a remote area of Charmang Valley of Nawagai tehsil on August 9 complained about the closure of a government school for more than a week due to the ‘absence’ of teachers and warned of holding a protest if the issue was not addressed immediately. Talking to reporters, the residents including Ziaur Rehman, Anjum Khan and Sahar Gul said that the government primary school for boys was the only public
KHYBER: Setting aside the official criteria for upgradation of primary schools, officials of the education department in Khyber adopted a ‘novel’ way to select primary schools for upgradation by conducting a draw in Jamrud tehsil, much to the displeasure of people. Dawn learnt from both official and private sources that the department received at least 15 applications from the management of the same number of primary schools for their upgradation, as per the official
RAWALPINDI: The divisional administration has directed the Communication and Works Department to complete work on the Mother and Child Hospital by the end of December and ensure the quality of construction material. Work on the Mother and Child Hospital started in 2005, but the building is still incomplete. The project was launched by former interior minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed during the government of Gen Pervez Musharraf. Former prime minister Shaukat Aziz inaugurated the project
PAKISTAN’s presence among countries with the fastest-growing HIV epidemic in Asia is a matter of shame. Globally, the virus is found in drug addicts, sex workers and other high-risk sections. What makes our crisis more distressing is the victims’ profile: children and low-risk groups who have been infected because of a broken healthcare system. Sindh’s health department has said that the necessary measures were in place to curb HIV’s spread, including 44 antiretroviral therapy
SAHIWAL: The matriculation results of 409 candidates appearing in the Secondary School Certificate (First Annual) Examination 2026 has been halted by the Sahiwal Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE) due to discrepancies in their fee vouchers. According to a statement issued by the board, the accounts department had been tasked with auditing and reconciling the paid fee vouchers of all candidates who appeared in the examination with actual bank statements. It is important