Islamabad: Federal Minister of Education Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui underscored the significance of girls’ education as both a moral imperative and an economic necessity. During the closing session of the two-day International Conference on “Girls’ Education in Muslim Communities: Challenges and Opportunities” hosted by his ministry here, Dr Siddiqui expressed pride in the conference’s success and said he was committed to ensuring that every child in Pakistan, irrespective of gender or socio-economic background, has
Child Rights in Focus
A delegation from the Child Rights Movement (CRM) Punjab held a meeting with the members of the National Commission on the Rights of Child (NCRC) to discuss key child rights issues and to strengthen the collaboration between civil society organisations and the NCRC to deal with critical issues, including: Child marriage, Corporal punishment, Juvenile justice, The implementation of the Free and Compulsory Primary Education Act, Tackling child and domestic labour Improving birth registration systems
19,000 children in K-P are working in agriculture and other sectors instead of attending school PESHAWAR: Illiteracy is a vice plaguing both genders in areas faring poorly in terms of human development, the problem is exacerbated in tribal districts, where girls’ education is more or less neglected. Furthermore, the fact that several areas in these regions still lack functional schools, either due to destruction caused by terrorism or natural disasters like floods, only adds
KARACHI: In view of the growing incidents of falling and drowning in open manholes, the Karachi Water and Sewerage Corporation has implemented a procedure to install covers within 12 to 24 hours. A spokesman for the utility said that new Standard Operational Procedures (SOPs) had been implemented to address public complaints promptly on the directives of Mayor Barrister Murtaza Wahab. He said that the people could report issues related to open manholes or damaged
PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa health department has spent around Rs100 billion on the provision of free healthcare under the Sehat Card Plus programme to 3.89 million patients since its launch in 2016. Beneficiaries of the health insurance scheme included 2.09 million (53.07pc) women, 1.79 million (46.03pc) men, and 17 transgender persons, according to an official report. According to it, private hospitals earned Rs54.32 billion and public hospitals Rs44.66 billion from the SCP, with the
KARACHI: Aneesa Haroon drops off her tattered school bag at her rural home in Pakistan and hurriedly grabs lunch before joining her father in the fields to pick vegetables. The 11-year-old’s entry into school at the age of seven was a negotiation between teachers and her parents in her farming village on the outskirts of Karachi. “Initially, many parents were not in favour of educating their children,” headteacher Rukhsar Amna told AFP. “Some children were
ISLAMABAD: Several colleges run by the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) are facing a shortage of teachers while five model colleges in the federal capital were functioning without a regular teaching staff. Sources said the girls’ college in Bhara Kahu, and the boys’ colleges in Humak, Sector I-14, and Sector I-8/3 are without adequate teaching staff. Meanwhile, the model colleges in Mera Bagwal, Pakistan Town, Sector G-13, and Sector G-15 did not have regular
ISLAMABAD: Human rights activists have demanded that the government form an independent investigation commission to get children trapped in blasphemy cases released. The demand came from lawyer Usman Warraich, Rana Abdul Hameed Advocate, Iman Mazari Advocate, and the parents of the affected children at a news conference at the National Press Club. Lawyer Usman Warraich said that according to a report by the Special Branch last year, a suspicious religious extremist group is trapping
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has called for collective efforts to remove cultural or social impediments to ensure women’s access to education, as education leaders from Muslim countries convened in Islamabad to collaborate on initiatives for advancing girls’ education. A two-day international conference, ‘Girls Education in Muslim Communities: Challenges and Opportunities,’ commenced in Islamabad on Saturday to foster dialogue and find actionable solutions to address problems in this regard. The summit brought together leaders from
LAHORE: The Punjab government on 10th January ordered monitoring of 208 schools run by the seminaries in the province. The government issued a directive to monitor 208 seminary schools across the province aimed at enhancing oversight and ensuring compliance with educational standards. The decision was taken for a broader initiative to regulate religious education institutions and ensure their adherence to the prescribed guidelines. The notification, available with Dawn, mandates local administrations to conduct regular
BAHAWALPUR: The Bahawalpur bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC) has ordered the Punjab local government and community development director general to take action under the Child Marriage Restraint Act 1929 against five Nikah registrars, who failed to fill the relevant columns in their registers and the marriage deeds regarding the age of grooms and brides. The anomalies in the record surfaced when LHC Bahawalpur bench senior judge Justice Anwarul Haque Panno was hearing
ISLAMABAD: The Directorate General Special Education, which was transferred to the Ministry of Education three months ago from the Ministry of Human Rights, has only 1,600 students in its all 133 centre while it has 658 employees. Reports say the institution has no fuel to run their busses for pick and drop of the 1,600 special children enrolled in special education centre while no funds were available to pay the electricity, gas, and water