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
Child Rights in Focus
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
LAHORE: The Punjab government on 9th January unveiled a plan to address the staff shortage in public schools across the province. The initiative is aimed at filling both teaching and non-teaching posts in public schools to improve the working of these institutions. According to officials, the School Education Department (SED) has directed all CEOs of the District Education Authority (DEA) to submit detailed plans for recruitment against vacant posts in their respective jurisdictions. They
KARACHI: For the first time in Pakistan, Sindh has introduced technical education as a part of the traditional curriculum under the “Middle Tech Initiative.” Sindh Education Minister, Syed Sardar Ali Shah, on January 9, inaugurated the initiative, describing it as a milestone in the province’s educational reforms. The inauguration ceremony took place at the CMS Government Boys Secondary Campus School in Karachi. He emphasised that the programme aims to teach technical and vocational skills
PESHAWAR: Adviser to Chief Minister on Information Barrister Mohammad Ali Saif on 9th January assured his support for drafting rules under the already prepared Hindu Marriage Act. “This is a matter of justice and equality,” he stated, pledging to advocate for presenting the proposed rules in the meeting of the provincial cabinet in the coming days. He was talking to a National Lobbying Delegation for Minority Rights who met him here to discuss the
ISLAMABAD: Another case of poliovirus has taken last year’s tally of cases to 70, officials have confirmed. The Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health has confirmed the detection of wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) in a male child from Karachi’s East district. The case has been counted in last year’s tally as the sample was collected in 2024, a lab official said. Karachi’s East district has now reported two polio