The recent murder of Dr Ajmal Sawand, an Assistant Professor at Sukkur IBA, has sparked protests against feudalism and tribal chiefs in Northern Sindh. However, the question remains: where do these tribal chiefs derive their power from, and why does this ancient system persist in the region? One of my previous studies may provide some clues to this phenomenon. In 2017, I analyzed the results of the Standardized Achievement Test administered by Sindh government
Child Rights in Focus
On April 19, 2010, the Constitution Act also known as the Eighteenth Amendment, received the assent of then President Asif Ali Zardari and was promulgated the following day. One of the monumental changes introduced by the 18th amendment was Article 25-A, that propagated a child’s “right to education.” It reads, “The State shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of five to sixteen years in such manner as may
On 28 April 2023, Chief Minister Sindh, Murad Ali Shah inaugurated the first public sector specialised 200-bed children’s hospital in Karachi offering paediatric services especially to newborns, infants and premature babies. The Sindh Institute of Child Health and Neonatology (SICHN) in Korangi is equipped with 21 ventilators along with modern facilities, including a 52-bed intensive care unit dedicated to premature babies, a 28-bed ICU, a 53-bed general unit, a state-of-the-art laboratory and health information
“YES, your child is eligible for the measles vaccination. Your information is correct, the vaccine is free, and provided by the government’s immunisation programme. Is there anything else you’d like to know? Take care of yourself. Allah Hafiz.” This was a telephone operator responding to questions on routine immunisation. In the second booth, another operator was telling a mother from district Khairpur in Sindh that the vaccination team would not visit her at home,
A public service message by Cities for Children on the International Day to End Corporal Punishment 2023.
The filmmaker behind Yasir Hussain and Ayesha Omar’s film on Javed Iqbal, Pakistan’s most infamous murderer, recently changed the film’s name to Kurki and resubmitted it to the censor board for approval. The director, Abu Aleeha, made the necessary changes to the film and announced that it has been cleared by the censor board for release on May 19th. The director explained that the new name was based on Javed Iqbal’s nickname, derived from
UNICEF released it flagship report “The State of World’s Children 2023” on a theme “For Every Child, Vaccination”. According to UNICEF, world is facing a red alert for children’s health: During the COVID -19 pandemic, vaccination coverage dropped dramatically, leaving millions of children unprotected against some of the most serious childhood diseases. In addition, many millions of children from some of the world’s most marginalised communities have not received life-saving vaccinations for a long
Daily Dawn in its editorial on April 19, 2023 highlighted the issue of malnourished children and urged the state to address the nutritional needs of vulnerable children in flood-affected areas. “Although the waters of 2022’s devastating floods have receded, the long-term impacts of the climate event continue to haunt the victims, particularly children. According to the UN, the number of malnourished children in the flood-affected areas has increased greatly, even though malnourishment was already
It is heart-rending to see how some issues may hold enough negativity to seed nothing but differences amongst societal units; or perhaps it is our irritating tendency to fail when it comes to dealing strategically with challenges as a nation. Last month I attended a seminar. Once the presentation by the chairperson of Punjab Higher Education Commission (PHEC) was over, a lady addressing herself as a public school teacher raised her concern over how
This report presents an analysis of data collected by PCE members during a Budget Tracking Activity aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of budget allocation and expenditure at the district level in promoting gender-responsive, disability-inclusive, and disaster-responsive public education. The data was collected from 12 districts through various sources, including one-on-one meetings with District Education Offices, education census reports, and government data portals. The report assesses the success of budget allocation and expenditure in achieving
The Peshawar High Court has ruled that a juvenile accused charged with terrorism-related offence should be tried by a juvenile court notified under the Juvenile Justice System Act, 2018, and not by an anti-terrorism court. A single-member bench consisting of Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim accepted plea of an under-trial juvenile accused and directed that his case should be forthwith transferred to Peshawar juvenile court. The petitioner was arrested after a firing incident on the premises
Daily Tribune in its editorial on 16 April 2023 stressed the need for the government of Pakistan to do everything possible to promote and include all groups in society. According to Daily Tribune, “In 2020, a NADRA survey revealed that there are as many as 371,833 differently-abled children in Pakistan. Despite their large number, we rarely come across persons with disabilities (PWDs) in public spheres due to widespread discrimination and negative attitudes towards them.