ISLAMABAD: After complaints by parents, the Directorate of Special Education on 16th January took urgent steps to restart the transport service from 17th January for the Special Education Centre for Hearing and Speech Impairments located at H-9/4. The transport service remained suspended since January 9 due to lack of funds, leaving students unable to attend classes. There are over 550 special students in the centre and out of them 437 had been using the
Child Rights in Focus
LAKKI MARWAT: The Bannu district administration has unveiled a manual for schoolchildren on ethics, politeness and good manners and civic sense. Deputy commissioner Abdul Hameed Khan and Brig Naveed Ahmad were the chief guests on the occasion, where assistant commissioner Syed Abrar Ali Shah, teachers of government and private schools, religious scholars, journalists, and students were in attendance. Officials said the manual, titled “Guidance for Young Minds,” had been published under the chief minister’s
BAJAUR: Three children were wounded when two mortar shells fired from an undisclosed location hit two houses in the hilly Shekhan Banda Malasaid area of Salarzai tehsil here late on 15th January. Local residents, Rescue 1122 and police officials said on Thursday that the two mortar shells fired hit the houses of local residents Saidur Rehman and Islamul Haq areas leaving three children wounded. They said the children were preparing for dinner along with
WHY is this country so against its own children and its own future? Are you surprised by this question? Look at some of the statistics and facts below and see if the question is still surprising. Some 40 percent of our children are said to be malnourished, that is, four out of 10 children are starving. We are not even able to give polio drops to all our children. We have had more than 70 cases
LAHORE: All Government Employees Grand Alliance (AGEGA) on 16th January protested outside the Civil Secretariat against the government decision to cut salaries, pension, and gratuity and leave encashment. Protests were held in other major cities of Punjab as well. The interim Punjab government had issued notifications for these cuts, prompting AGEGA activists to demand that Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz revoke them. During the interim government’s period, a crackdown on protests led to the detention
ISLAMABAD: Anemia, a debilitating condition affecting millions of children, adolescent girls, and women in Pakistan, is silently draining the nation’s economy. With annual losses estimated at $2.5 billion for children alone and an additional $595 million for adolescent girls and women, the total economic toll from anemia exceeds $3 billion, according to Nutrition International’s recent Cost of Inaction (COI) report. Despite some improvements, anemia remains a severe public health challenge. Among children aged 6-59 months, 53pc
ISLAMABAD: The country reported a polio case on 16th January, marking the second consecutive day of new cases and bringing the tally for 2024 to 73. An official at the Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health confirmed the detection of the 73rd wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) case from Thatta. “This is the first polio case from Thatta for 2024. Since the sample was collected in December last
A speeding heavy vehicle claimed the life of a six-year-old girl in Karachi on 16-January-2025, bringing the total number of fatalities in heavy vehicle accidents to six since the start of the year. According to reports, the girl, identified as Tania, daughter of Usman, was struck by a dumper truck near Usmania Restaurant on the Super Highway, within the jurisdiction of the Gadap City police station. The accident occurred as Tania was crossing the
Police have registered a case and started a search after the abduction of two children in the Garden West area. Five-year-old Aalian and six-year-old Ali went missing from Garden West on 14-January-2025 while playing outside their homes. Their parents have registered a case at the Garden police station. The FIR No 12/25 was registered on the complaint of Aalian’s mother Zainab, wife of Younis. She informed the police that she worked at a gym
Police remain clueless about the whereabouts of a seven-year-old boy, Sarim, who has been missing since January 7. Despite investigations into his disappearance, there has been no significant breakthrough in locating him. However, there have been developments in the case as the boy’s mother received a ransom demand via WhatsApp from an international number. Sarim was allegedly abducted in North Karachi Sector 5 within the limits of the Bilal Colony police station. A case
CHITRAL: The Aga Khan University Institute for Educational Development (AKU-IED) organised a workshop here on 15th January, highlighting the integration of education for sustainable development and climate change education into national frameworks. The event, titled “Empowering Change: A Workshop on Systems Thinking for Climate Change and Environmental Education,” was part of the Climate Action Fellowship, 2024, which brings into action the teachers in public sector schools into the arena of climate change to bolster
LAHORE: In a significant move to prioritise and address children’s rights, Punjab Assembly Speaker Malik Muhammad Ahmad Khan has announced the formation of the first-ever Parliamentary Caucus for Child Rights in the provincial assembly. The initiative aims to establish a collaborative platform to address pressing issues related to children’s welfare and rights across the province. The caucus will be led by MPA Sarah Ahmad, who has been appointed as the convener of the committee,