OKARA: A teenage girl was rescued after four weeks on 10th November and the penal section of rape was added to the already registered first information report of kidnapping. The Hujra Shah Muqeem police recovered the 15-year-old girl who was kidnapped on Oct 12 from Hujra Shah Muqeem Chowk. Her father had got a case registered against a named and two unidentified co-suspects. The police said that the girl after recovery stated that she
Child Rights in Focus
Despite govt banning child begging, Social Welfare Dept fails to rehabilitate minors forced into the trade Every child born into this world has a right to a safe home and a secure future, which under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, is the state’s obligation to fulfil. However, the authorities in Sindh, neither have the time nor the eagerness to address the unfortunate children wasting their lives away on the roads. Despite the government
New fees, and development charges cause strong backlash from parents RAWALPINDI: Amid a severe financial crisis, the education boards have introduced a “heavy fee bomb” for students taking the 9th and 10th (matriculation) annual examinations in March 2025, causing a strong backlash from parents. The boards have also introduced development funds for students. The Boards Committee has released the fee schedule for the 2025 annual examinations. The certificate fee is now Rs1,000, the processing
Moonlighting as a girl, suspect would befriend boys on social media A major operation by the FIA Cyber Crime Circle in Dera Ismail Khan led to the arrest of a suspect who blackmailed minor children and their families by making indecent videos. The accused, named Muhammad Kashif Karim, was found to be making videos of minors and was involved in sexual exploitation. According to FIA officials, the action against the suspect was taken after
Despite no changes in the examination procedure, a large number of failing students have passed their second-year exam The surprising improvement in the passing ratio of the second-year pre-engineering and pre-medical exams held by the Karachi Higher Secondary Education Board has raised several eyebrows. The doubts in the veracity of the results have been fueled by the general perception that the Board may have relaxed its grading criteria to avoid facing criticism like last
TOBA TEK SINGH: Faisalabad’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) cybercrime team raided D-Type Colony on Samundri Road on 9th November and arrested two persons for blackmailing a minor girl by sending her explicit photos. Suspects allegedly harassed the girl and took compromising photos, threatening to share them with her parents via WhatsApp. The FIA team seized two mobile phones from the suspects and registered a case under section 22 of the PECA 2016 and section
With the support of the Reform Support Unit Sindh and Unicef, the Thar Education Alliance is launching a Children’s Parliament to promote educational rights and bring out-of-school children back to school in Sindh. Children from 30 districts of Sindh will participate in this initiative. In the Children’s Parliament, two children will be selected from each of the 29 districts, while six students will be chosen from the Sajawal district due to its low literacy
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s fight against polio suffered another setback when one more child was paralysed by the virus in Dera Ismail Khan (DI Khan) district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The latest case brings the total number of Wild Poliovirus Type-1 (WPV1) cases to 48 in the country this year. The Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health (NIH) in Islamabad confirmed this latest case on Saturday, reporting infection in a boy
The Sindh government is likely to adopt a law soon making the entry of Computerised National Identity Card numbers of the would-be married couples in their Nikahnama compulsory to prevent underage marriages in the province. Sindh Women Development Minister Shaheena Sher Ali disclosed this while speaking as the chief guest at a seminar organised by the non-governmental organisation, Civil Society Support Programme at a hotel on the 8th of November. The provincial minister informed
PESHAWAR: The first women and children protection unit in the province was established by Nowshera police to support and encourage women and children to report crimes against them. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Inspector General of Police Akhtar Hayat Khan, who was the chief guest at the opening event, stated that this specialised unit would be essential in safeguarding the weaker members of society. He added that it would serve as a model for other districts in
TOBA TEK SINGH: A youth allegedly raped two minor sisters at gunpoint at Chak 357-JB, Gojra, on 8th November. As per police, a labourer “S” would go for work, leaving his three minor daughters at his house in the village as his wife had died. In his absence, the suspect, a vagabond, allegedly raped Shahbaz’s eldest 14-year-old daughter “Z” at gunpoint for two months, threatening to kill her and her sisters, if she complained
RAHIM YAR KHAN: The buildings of 22 government schools in four tehsils of Rahim Yar Khan district, which were declared dangerous by the district education authority (DEA) in March 2024, are still waiting for action by the administration and departments concerned while the students are forced to attend classes in the open in inclement weather conditions. According to a letter, dated 06-03-2024, the DEA chief executive officer (CEO) had informed the executive engineer (EXEN)