LAHORE: The Lahore High Court has issued a set of guidelines to the Punjab government on the protection of women at shelter homes (Dar ul Aman), including the removal of all male staff, except essential officials, from such facilities. Justice Tariq Saleem Sheikh passed the instructions on multiple identical petitions filed by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan and others, in the wake of allegations of sexual exploitation of orphans, levelled by Afshan Latif,
Child Rights in Focus
Police arrested a man on 23-December-2024 for allegedly raping his minor stepsister. A woman named Saima, wife of Aslam, filed a complaint at the Defence police station stating that her seven-year-old daughter was subjected to rape by her stepson, Ali Aslam, on November 28. She told police that her daughter informed her that Ali had raped her in the past as well. Following her statement, police registered an FIR against the suspect and arrested
RAWALPINDI: Speakers at a workshop on 23rd December unanimously endorsed a resolution calling for the minimum age of marriage for girls to be linked to their national identity cards across the country. The resolution to leverage technology and national identity cards to prevent child marriages was supported by a diverse group of stakeholders, including health professionals, religious scholars, lawyers, academicians, media persons, and government officials from various departments, including education, health, population welfare, women
KARACHI: Health Minister Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho has said that the Sindh government plans to extend paediatric and neonatal intensive care services as part of its efforts to tackle the high infant mortality rate in the province. Speaking at a media briefing organised at the New Secretariat to highlight this year’s performance of the health department on December 23, she stated that a major concern for the provincial government in the health sector has
ISLAMABAD: The United Nations special rapporteurs have expressed concern over militant attacks on girls’ schools in Pakistan and urged the government to safeguard the inalienable right of women and girls to a safe and secure education. “We are alarmed by the ongoing terror attacks against girls’ schools by organisations who are against the education of women and girls. We note that all attacks on schools are abhorrent, but that targeted attacks against girls’ schools
PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa health department has expressed concern over the Benazir Income Support Programme’s decision to hand over the Benazir Nashonuma Programme (BNP) to non-governmental organisations in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and said it should be allowed to continue carrying out the anti-malnutrition initiative to support the health of poverty-stricken mothers and infant children. The programme is meant to address pregnancy-related issues and ensure healthy growth of children up to the age of two years,
The NCRC collaborated with Meta and the Digital Rights Foundation for the Youth Online Safety Roundtable held in Islamabad. Member KP, Miss Nadia Bibi, and the NCRC team participated in the discussion. The discussion aimed to foster youth online safety by addressing challenges specific to Pakistan’s context, with a focus on strengthening parent-teen communication and customizing Meta’s safety tools and policies to meet local needs. Additionally, emphasis was placed on NCRC’s potential role in
ISLAMABAD: The Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health (NIH) has confirmed the detection of wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) in environmental samples collected from 10 already infected districts. According to a lab official, sewage samples collected from Gwadar, Sibi, Khuzdar, Dukki, Hub, Lasbela, Noshki, Bannu, D.I. Khan, and Lahore were found positive for WPV1. “When polio virus is found in the sewage sample of a district, it is
At least 50 children have died in Parachinar due to the recent shortage of medicines caused by the closure of roads leading to the city in the aftermath of armed violence between warring tribes last month in the restive Kurram tribal district, officials said. Thousands of people have been stranded in Parachinar because of clashes that have killed at least 130 people since last month. Residents have reported food and medicine shortages in parts of the Kurram district,
PESHAWAR: The district administration here on 22 December 2024 issued a directive making polio vaccination certificates mandatory for obtaining official documents, including birth, marriage, divorce, and death certificates, in the city’s seven tehsils. According to a notification, applicants must provide a confirmation certificate from the District Health Office (DHO) verifying that polio drops had been administered to their children. The village and neighbourhood councils are barred from issuing certificates without obtaining a no-objection certificate
Rawalpindi: Pneumonia, which is considered as the number one killer of children in Pakistan has started hitting the population in this region of the country as the number of cases being reported at the allied hospitals in town is on a continuous rise since the advent of winter this year. Data collected by ‘The News’ on Sunday has revealed that in the last three weeks, well over 2500 child patients with pneumonia have been
CHILDREN constitute around 45 percent of the Pakistani population, with 22.7pc adolescents from 10 to 19 years. Along with their educational, safety and physical health needs, there is also an urgent need to prevent and respond to their mental health challenges. The WHO estimates that 15pc of the global burden of disease among 10-to19-year-olds is due to mental disorders. Globally, one out of seven children in this age group experiences some form of mental