ISLAMABAD: As part of its comprehensive reform agenda, the Islamabad Capital Territory Private Educational Institutions Regulatory Authority (ICT-PEIRA) has embarked on a major upgrade of its IT infrastructure to enhance efficiency, reliability, transparency and service delivery for private educational institutions operating in the federal capital. In a significant step towards digital governance and improved ease of doing business in the private education sector, ICT-PEIRA has successfully introduced a fully paperless system for registration and
Child Rights in Focus
SUKKUR: Five children of a couple have been suffering from a mysterious skin disease that has covered their all body parts. The patients are now losing their eyesight as well, according to the couple. Abdul Ghafoor Lashari, a resident of Gul Akbar Pathan village, located near Khanpur Mahar town of Ghotki district, told local reporters that he had taken his children to various health facilities but the disease could not be diagnosed. He said
PAKISTAN’S health sector is no longer merely under strain, it is in complete disarray. The Pakistan Medical Association’s Health of the Nation 2026 report reveals a crisis that has long festered, is preventable and most worryingly, normalised. The numbers should jolt policymakers: 675 newborns and 27 mothers die every single day from avoidable causes. Such losses cannot be viewed as acts of fate. They are failures of governance. Contaminated water remains the silent killer.
PESHAWAR: Peshawar High Court has ruled that in trials of sexual offences involving minors, anti-rape law mandates child-friendly practices, in-camera proceedings, protection of privacy and dignity of victims. A bench consisting of Justice Sahibzada Asadullah and Justice Dr Khurshid Iqbal observed: “Furthermore, the Anti-Rape (Investigation and Trial) Act, 2021, reflects legislative recognition that sexual offence trials involving minors require child-sensitive procedures, in-camera proceedings, protection of dignity and an environment conducive to truthful testimony.” The
RAWALPINDI: Board examinations for Class 8 in government schools across Punjab, organised by the Punjab Education, Curriculum, Training and Assessment Authority (PECTAA), will begin in the second week of March. For the first time, scripts will be marked through a computerised system, and results will be announced on March 31. The examinations will run for only two to three days and will cover four subjects: Urdu, English, Mathematics and Social Studies. The Punjab government
The teacher was halfway through explaining a lesson when she suddenly stopped. A piece of chalk slipped from her fingers and clattered to the floor as her eyes fixed on a child sitting in the corner of the classroom. The boy had begun rocking his chair back and forth, his hands pressed tightly over his ears, whispering to himself as the rising noise of the classroom and his chair rocking began to overwhelm him.
PESHAWAR/ LAHORE/ KARACHI: Every now and then, some isolated case of honour killings makes its way to the media. However, beyond individual tragedies lies a bleak national picture, where family forgiveness, judicial delays, and weaknesses in law enforcement allow innocents to continue being killed in the name of honour. Honour killings continue to emerge as a serious human rights issue across the country, where the number of incidents remains high while the rate of
• Insists govt can’t create jobs for millions of people; private sector must lead employment drive • Claims FIR registered against sitting senator over alleged tax evasion • Says tobacco sector ‘not paying taxes’, involved in smuggling • Construction relief package ‘in pipeline’, announcement expected soon • Textile support under review; minister seeks 10-12 days for concrete steps LAHORE: Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb on Feb 14 warned that Pakistan could not be run with
LAHORE: A four-year-old boy, Ali Abbas, died after allegedly being assaulted by a neighbour in the Defence B area following a dispute between children. Police said the suspect, identified as Allah Rakha, allegedly entered the child’s home after the quarrel and repeatedly struck him with kicks and punches, resulting in his death at the scene. Police and forensic teams reached the location, collected evidence, and took the body into custody for a post-mortem examination.
LAHORE: The Dolphin Force claimed to have rescued a woman and her children after she climbed on top of a minaret of a mosque in Raiwind area to commit suicide. As per reports, Allah Bakshi took the extreme step due to financial strains she had been facing for the last many months. On Friday, she climbed the minaret of a mosque along with her children — Amina (13), Azan (11), Aleezy (8), Aleena (7)
KARACHI: A teenage girl took her own life in her Orangi Town home on Feb 13, police said. Pakistan Bazaar SHO Imam Bux Lashari said that 16-year-old Neha had lost her interest in studying. Her mother and brothers scolded her for not going to school. In the early morning, she was found hanging from the ceiling fan in her room. She was taken to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital where doctors declared her dead. Published
LAST week Abu Dhabi hosted the ‘Machines Can Think 2026’ conference. Given the region’s enthusiastic embrace of AI, the availability of resources for ambitious approaches, and the openness to pursue them, I was most interested in one particular panel discussion session, titled ‘AI Classroom — Rethinking Education for the Knowledge Economy.’ The panel was attended by the provost of Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI) in Abu Dhabi, Timothy Baldwin, the president