ABBOTTABBAD. A 12 year old domestic help was allegedly raped and murdered at a residential property in Jinnahabad. Mirpur Police identified the victims as a girl who was found murdered at the residence of Harris Latif, an influential figure who originally hails from from Shergarh. A police team swiftly responded, arrested Harris and registered a case. A post-mortem examination conducted at DHQ hospital revealed that the child was indeed subject to sexual assault; her
Child Rights in Focus
ISLAMABAD: The Global Partnership for Education (GPE) will provide a $9m grant to improve access to and quality of early childhood and primary education in Balochistan. The funding aims to enhance learning environments and strengthen reading and numeracy skills for boys and girls in GPE-supported schools across the province. GPE, a global initiative to address the education crisis, is coordinating this grant through two key agencies — the World Bank and Unicef. The World
LAHORE: Before schools across Punjab closed for the summer vacation in May this year, a surprising issue came to light: more than 46,000 government teachers in the province were found to be surplus, meaning they were posted at public schools that didn’t actually need them. This was revealed in a briefing to Punjab’s Education Minister Rana Sikandar Hayat here on 04-July-2025. The School Education Department (SED) officials revealed that hundreds of government schools across
KARACHI: Over 1.6 million children, between five and 17 years of age, in Sindh have been found to be trapped in child labour, revealed the Sindh Child Labour Survey 2022–2024. Conducted by the provincial labour department with technical support from Unicef and the Bureau of Statistics Sindh, the survey also revealed that over half (50.4pc) of child labour victims aged 10-17 worked in hazardous conditions, exposing them to excessive hours, extreme weather and unsafe
The Karachi Police on 4th July said they had arrested the primary suspect allegedly involved in the gang-rape of a girl in Ittehad Town. In a statement issued today, Keamari Senior Superintendent of Police Captain (retired) Faizan Ali said that the Ittehad Town Police had registered the gang-rape case a day ago. He said the incident had occurred on July 1 when the detained suspect had forcibly taken away the victim on his bike
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on 3rd July reaffirmed Pakistan’s commitment to eradicating polio, vowing to intensify efforts with the support of international, provincial, and local teams to achieve a polio-free country. “We are committed to protect every child in Pakistan from this crippling disease and achieve a polio-free Pakistan,” PM Shehbaz said while presiding over a meeting on polio eradication. He stressed the need for “full dedi-cation and seriousness” to ensure every child
WE just saw the release of the Pakistan Economic Survey 2024-25 and the presentation of the budget for 2025-26. There is a lot that can be said about the economy and the budget, but in this article I want to focus on education and what the Survey and the budget tell us about it and this government’s priorities. All figures in this article are taken from the Economic Survey 2024-25. Empty vessels make the
ISLAMABAD: A special meeting of the Central Development Working Party (CDWP) on 3rd July approved six Daanish school projects — in regions of Balochistan and one in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) — with a total estimated cost of Rs19.25 billion. The meeting, chaired by Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal, was convened at the prime minister’s directives. The approved projects include the establishment of Daanish schools in the Qilla Saifullah district of Balochistan at an estimated
MARDAN: A man from Mardan recounted the tragic incident at the Swat River last week, which claimed at least 16 lives — including his two children, 12-year-old Daniyal and 6-year-old Ishaal. Naseer Ahmed told of his ordeal as he and other people around him were helpless to pull the 17 people of two families from Sialkot and Mardan from the raging waters of Swat River. Speaking to Geo News, Ahmed said: “I called [Rescue]
The Pakistan Education Statistics Report 2023–24 offers an in-depth analysis of the country’s education system, aligning its findings with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for inclusive and equitable quality education. Primarily based on public school data for children aged 5–16, the report examines trends in access, equity, financing, and governance. Between 2022–23 and 2023–24, student enrollment rose by 4.03% (from 56.1 to 58.3 million), and the number of teachers increased by 3.15%. However, the
Pakistan’s educational institutions are facing a growing public health and child protection crisis due to increasing drug use among students. The Pakistan Narcotics Control Board (PNCB) estimates that nearly 44% of college and university students have used illicit substances. With nearly two-thirds of the population under 30, this trend poses a serious threat to the country’s future development and stability. The crisis is driven by structural and systemic factors including academic pressure, poverty, lack
MANSEHRA: The education department has established summer camps for schoolchildren who have migrated to the mountainous Spat Valley in Upper Kohistan district. “We have set up five camps where children from 10 schools can continue learning during the summer season,” deputy commissioner Tariq Ali Khan told a meeting in his office in the district headquarters Dasu. With Mr Khan in the chair, the meeting of the District Schools Coordination Committee decided in principle about