HYDERABAD: A rally was held here on 10 December 2024 under the aegis of the Society for the Protection of Rights of the Child (Sparc) in collaboration with the district administration to commemorate Human Rights Day. Speaking at the rally, an official of the district administration, Abdul Khaliq Baloch, said that a ban had already been imposed on child begging, adding that the provincial social welfare department had been directed to pick up the children
Child Rights in Focus
LAHORE: The Lahore High Court has expressed its concern over the growing trend of fathers questioning the legitimacy of their children by requesting DNA analysis, often as a tactic to evade paying maintenance allowances to their ex-spouses. “It is becoming a common practice in our society that whenever a suit for recovery of maintenance allowance is filed against a person, he comes forward to the court and challenges the legitimacy of the child by
SOUTH WAZIRISTAN: Students and teachers staged a demonstration in the Angoor Adda Bazaar here on 9 December 2024 against the closure of the Pak-Afghan border point. A large number of students and teachers from various government and private schools and madressahs attended the protest. Maulana Tasbihullah Wazir, who led the protesters, demanded that the local people should be exempted from visa and passport condition, and should be allowed to move freely across the border
ISLAMABAD: Apart from the challenge of around 26 million out-of-school children, Pakistan’s education system is rife with quality issues as only five percent of children are receiving good quality education. Moreover, only 12pc of the eligible age group has currently access to higher education, according to the education ministry’s “National Education Policy Development Framework 2024” launched on 09-December-2024. “Roughly, not more than 5 percent of children are receiving good quality education. No province can
LAHORE: A 12-year-old domestic worker was allegedly tortured by his employer in the North Cantt area. The victim, identified as Ali Sarwar, was reportedly abandoned far from his employer’s home after his condition deteriorated due to the alleged abuse. Locals found the boy in a distressed state and alerted the police. Patrolling officers responded to the scene and shifted the victim to the hospital. Police officials stated that the extent of the injuries and
ISLAMABAD: Over 7,500 students demonstrated their mathematical abilities in the Pakistan Mathematics Olympiad (PMO) held on 8th December across 69 examination centres. According to the Federal Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (FBISE), it successfully conducted the PMO 2024 in collaboration with the Lahore University of Management Sciences (Lums) and the Islamic World Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Icesco). The board said the event was designed to identify and nurture mathematical talent among secondary
ISLAMABAD: As 26 million children remain out of schools despite an education emergency and enhanced focus on this problem, the new educational framework has called for a two-pronged approach to address this issue, while also saying that the sector “remains on the outer margins of policy priorities”. The ‘National Education Policy Development Framework’ is expected to be launched by Education Minister Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui and Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal in the capital today.
PESHAWAR: The reluctance of parents to immunise their children has been causing deaths from vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles and diphtheria as both ailments have caused 78 deaths in the province this year so far, according to health experts. They said that non-vaccination caused 48 deaths due to measles and 30 from diphtheria in the province in the current year, prompting health department to launch province-wide vaccination campaign later that month. The provincial director
The Sindh High Court (SHC) has dismissed petitions of infant formula milk importers against vires of the Sindh Protection and Promotion of Breastfeeding and Young Child Nutrition Act 2023. The petitioners, Nutrico Morinaga and others, had submitted in the petitions that the breastfeeding law had been promulgated in violation of the Article 116 of the Constitution without lawful authority. They had also sought injunction against government functionaries from taking any coercive action against them,
HARIPUR: A group of villagers tortured two boys and forced them to walk in the streets naked in the Khalabat Township here on 7th December. A video of the incident was later released on social media platforms. The police said that the boys were stripped naked by a minor resident’s relatives and friends to revenge his “molestation” on Dec 1. SHO of the Khalabat Township police station Raja Mumtaz confirmed the incident. He quoted
SHANGLA: Alpuri tehsil administration said on 7th December that over 100 local widows, orphan girls, and other women would be trained in handicraft skills in the first phase of a district government programme, introduced in response to the high number of widows facing financial difficulties. Assistant Commissioner (AC) Mohammad Hamid Saddiqui told journalists that the district government, along with the social welfare department, intended to teach handicraft skills to local women, especially widows and
Pakistan’s low conviction rates for sexual assault highlight the urgent need for legal reform and victim protection. Sexual assault remains a massive problem in Pakistan, where a worryingly high offence rate pairs with an abysmal conviction rate, creating a recipe for disaster. Reliable data on sexual assault and related crimes has always been difficult to collect due to low reporting rates and cultural ‘norms’ that force victims to stay silent. Still, the data collected