The expanding corruption probe into Sindh’s education boards has laid bare a rot that goes far deeper than initially feared. What began as an investigation into irregularities at the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education, Mirpurkhas, has now spiralled into a province-wide scandal, implicating senior officials and the administrative hierarchy overseeing them. The context is as troubling as the latest revelations. The arrest of a key official from the Mirpurkhas Board triggered allegations that
Child Rights in Focus
PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on May 5 converted to life imprisonment the sentences of death awarded on multiple counts to a “serial” rapist and killer by a trial court last year. A bench consisting of Justice Sahibzada Asadullah and Justice Farah Jamshed pronounced a short order partially allowing three appeals filed by the convict, Sohail Alias Malang, challenging his conviction in the high-profile case by a child protection court on Jun 16, 2025.
LAHORE: A woman and her three minor children were found dead in their house in Multan under mysterious circumstances on May 5, 2026. Initially, Rescue 1122 and police received calls that a woman hanged herself, along with her three minor children, in a house in a katchi abadi (slum) near Mumtazabad Phattak in Multan. However, investigators express doubts about the stated cause of the deaths. A senior police officer, on condition of anonymity, told
The State of Children in Pakistan 2025 is the second annual flagship report by the National Commission on the Rights of Child under the NCRC Act, 2017. It provides an updated assessment of children’s rights in Pakistan, covering progress, gaps and emerging risks across federal, provincial and ICT jurisdictions. Guided by Pakistan’s constitutional framework and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, the report focuses on four key areas: survival, development,
The NCRC Child Advisory Panel (CAP) comprises 37 children from across Pakistan, including Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan, Islamabad Capital Territory and Gilgit-Baltistan. CAP members come from diverse backgrounds, including children from religious minorities, the transgender community and children with disabilities. They worked collaboratively to make the Committee on the Rights of Child Concluding Observations more understandable for children in Pakistan. Divided into 15 small groups of 2–3 members each, the children shared responsibility
BAHAWALPUR: A woman, along with her three children, including two daughters and four unidentified accomplices, allegedly killed her husband and concealed his body in a trunk at their house in Basti Kukranwali, within the jurisdiction of Baghdadul Jadid police station in Bahawalpur. According to police PRO Naeem Ahmed, a team, accompanied by the deceased Abdul Majid’s brother, recovered the decomposed body from a locked house on Monday. The body was found inside a trunk,
LAHORE: The Lahore Development Authority (LDA) and Unicef Pakistan on Monday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to transform the provincial metropolis into a “child-friendly city” under the global Child Friendly Cities Initiative (CFCI), marking a significant step towards promoting children’s rights and inclusive urban development. The MoU-signing ceremony was attended by foreign dignitaries, provincial ministers and representatives from various civil society organisations, reflecting broad-based support for the initiative. The event also featured performances
LAHORE: Several candidates were caught using unfair means during the ongoing Class-IX annual examination at centres by inspection teams across Punjab on May 4. Punjab Minister for School Education Rana Sikandar Hayat formed 10 special monitoring squads to conduct surprise visits to examination centres across the province to detect cheating. During a raid in Bahawalnagar, the squad recovered cheating material from 42 students. The situation prompted authorities to summon the district’s chief executive officer
RAWALPINDI: A teenage housemaid was allegedly tortured by her employer’s wife using electrical devices in Bahria Town’s phase VIII, police said. Police raids were underway to arrest the accused, a police spokesman said. Mohammad Adeel Riaz, a foot constable lodged an FIR with the Rawat Police saying that he was on night duty in Bahria Town’s phase VIII when he heard screams of a young girl who was rushing out of a house in
PAKISTAN’S HIV surge is no longer a slow-burning public health concern. It is now a system failure unfolding in real time. What makes the crisis particularly alarming is not just the rising numbers — estimated at over 350,000 people living with the disease — but the profile of those newly infected. Increasingly, they are children and low-risk individuals, infected not through behaviour but through the healthcare system meant to protect them. Two converging failures
GUJRAT: The Child Protection and Welfare Bureau (CPWB) rescued 24 children during an anti-beggary drive in parts of the city on May 4, 2026. The CPWB officials were also accompanied by the teams of social welfare and labour departments, police and Rescue 1122. The team carried out the operation in the Circular Road, Court Road, Servis Mor and Machili Chowk areas and rescued 24 children. They were shifted to the Gujranwala for their welfare
In this episode of DigiPod on Dawn News English, Usama Khilji speaks to technology policy lawyer Hassan Niazi about a major US case involving Meta and Google, where social media companies faced liability over allegedly addictive platform design and harm to young users.