Child workers in Pakistan face abuse, exploitation, and neglect. Stricter laws and actions are essential The suffering of child workers, especially in domestic households, is a harsh reminder of society’s failure to protect its most vulnerable members. In Pakistan, many children face severe physical and mental abuse, with their pain often hidden beneath layers of social inequality and apathy. The tragic stories of Rizwana, a 14-year-old girl employed as a domestic caregiver, and Fatima
Child Rights in Focus
New guidelines ‘to ensure discipline and transparency’ RAWALPINDI: The Punjab School Education Department has introduced guidelines to ensure discipline and transparency in government schools. District and tehsil education officers and school heads have been instructed to enforce these measures strictly. According to a circular issued by the department, the use of mobile phones during teaching hours has been banned for teachers, students, and non-teaching staff. Teachers are required to keep their phones on silent
Less than 5% of deaf children of school age in Pakistan attend school ISLAMABAD: Less than 5% of deaf children of school age in Pakistan attend school, reflecting the significant barriers they face in accessing education. Globally, the situation is similarly dire, with the World Federation of the Deaf estimating that 80% of the approximately 70 million deaf individuals worldwide have no access to education. In Pakistan, approximately 1.2 out of every 1,000 children
LAHORE: Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz has directed to launch Pakistan’s first-ever project to provide free insulin to children born with diabetes. “Little children are like flowers, they will not be allowed to wither,” said Chief Minister Punjab Maryam Nawaz Sharif while directing the authorities concerned to launch the Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Insulin Program to provide free insulin to Type-1 diabetic children at their homes, for which the registration process has started. She
Islamabad: Planning and Development Minister Ahsan Iqbal called for public sector schools to be equipped with the necessary resources to teach essential skills, ensuring that the proposed reforms deliver broad societal benefits. During a meeting about the Teacher Training Institute, the minister underscored the urgent need for education reforms to better prepare youth for the challenges of the future. The meeting was attended by senior officials, including the secretary and additional secretary of the
LAHORE: More than 860 children have undergone successful heart surgeries since the launch of the Chief Minister’s Children’s Heart Surgery Programme. Punjab Health Minister Khawaja Salman Rafique shared this information in a meeting on 30-November-2024. He shared this milestone during a meeting on the programme’s referral system held at the Punjab Health Initiative Management Company on 30-November-2024. In the meeting, the health minister reviewed the referral system in detail. The Punjab Information Technology Board
LAHORE: Dismissing a challenge to outsourcing the management of public sector schools through the Punjab Education Foundation (PEF), the Lahore High Court has observed that the policy decisions require political judgment, not legal interpretation. “Functionality of the Foundation is governed and regulated by the Government. Petitioners in fact are seeking exercise of judicial review jurisdiction in the functioning of the department, which is intrusion in the absence of any illegality, voidness and perversity is
RAWALPINDI: Punjab Senior Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb on November 30 said the provincial government wanted to complete the Mother and Child Hospital on Asghar Mall Road within a year and would also increase the number of beds from 200 to 400. She stated this during her visit to the long-stalled federal government project ‘Mother and Child Hospital’ and reviewed details regarding the handover of the project by the federal government to the provincial government. Members
LARKANA: The Larkana police have caught a suspect in Karachi and recovered from his possession a newborn girl allegedly taken away from Shaikh Zayed Hospital for Women more than a week ago, SSP Dr Mir Rohal Khan Khoso said in a late Friday night press release on 29th November. He said the suspect was located with the help of electronic gadgets and CCTV camera footages. Hectic efforts were made by the Larkana police for
QUETTA: In a groundbreaking initiative, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the Netherlands and the School of Leadership Foundation (SLF) inaugurated the first Adolescent and Youth Friendly Space (AYFS) in Quetta under the ‘Aghaaz’ project on 30th November. This four-year initiative aims to establish AYFS centres in Islamabad, Peshawar and Quetta, providing safe, inclusive spaces where the youth can access resources, psychosocial support and skill-building opportunities. The AYFS at NUML Quetta will cater to
SHEIKHUPURA: A school principal has been arrested on charges of sexually abusing several teachers and students in the Mirza Virkan area of Sheikhupura, reported Ary News. The case came to light after videos of the victims went viral on social media and WhatsApp groups. Following the emergence of the videos, the B-division station police conducted a raid on complaints of students and apprehended the accused. Police recovered at least 150 obscene videos from the
The Karachi police have no leads in at least 230 cases of children that have gone missing since January 2023. Meanwhile, a total of 2,066 cases relating to missing or kidnapped children have been registered since January 2023, with 1,828 of them being recovered safely. Data shared at a top-level meeting of the city’s police officers also showed that a disproportionately high number of children reported missing in the first nine months are boys