PESHAWAR: Experts have called upon policymakers to integrate mental health services into primary care settings to scale up awareness and reduce stigma associated with mental health illnesses among people. At the concluding session of fourth International Public Health Conference at Khyber Medical University (KMU) on 20 April 2024, they termed strengthening primary healthcare important to put brakes on increasing number of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in the country. Health Secretary Mahmood Aslam Wazir, who was
Child Rights in Focus
April is recognised as the Sexual Assault Awareness Month globally. In Pakistan, though, sexual awareness remains a controversial topic and it is often falsely equated with promoting immorality and indecency. In reality, it is to the contrary and sexual awareness plays a pivotal role in preventing sexual violence, which is rampant in our society. Sexual violence in general, and against minors in particular, is a crime that is under-reported, with an extremely low conviction
ISLAMABAD: While every year 600,000 children die in the emergency room (ER) across the country, the number can be reduced by 50 per cent by pumping just a nominal amount of money (Rs2,000 per child) to improve the emergency response. Child Life Foundation Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dr Ahsan Rabbani made these remarks in a conversation with Dawn. ‘It is unfortunate that the number of children who die in the ER is more than
LAHORE: In the wake of rapid technological advancement and rising cybercrime , the Punjab home department has prepared a first draft of the “Punjab Cyber Crime Control, Prevention and Punishment Act, 2024.” The first draft of the proposed cybercrime control law has for the first time identified all kinds of offences, including electronic financial frauds, fraudulent sales through online auctions or retail sites or through fake websites, mass marketing frauds and consumer scams. In
Communication is a big part of being human, starting from gestures to the many languages we use today. Over time, we got better at communicating with graphics, alphabets and modern electronic media. However, Pakistan recently faced a challenge – not having enough qualified professionals in Speech Language Pathology (SLP). Out of 240 million people, over 22 million suffer from speech, language, swallowing or hearing disorders. This scarcity accentuates the urgent necessity to tackle communication
The Non-Formal Education Statistics Report 2021-22 is a report jointly organized by Pakistan Institute for Education-PIE, Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training & JICA-AQAL Project to present a clear picture of statistics to all stakeholders, including lawmakers, policymakers, educationists, and researchers. The report includes the following statistics: 81% of students registered in NFE are registered with government NFE organizations, while the remaining 19% are registered with private or development sector organizations 36% of
ISLAMABAD: Education Minister Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui said on 17 April that the ministry was working on a programme to declare an education emergency in the country to tackle the issue of out of school children (OOSC). He stated this while talking to British High Commissioner to Pakistan Jane Marriott, who called on him at the ministry. The meeting was attended by Country Director British Council James Hampson and Secretary Education Mohyuddin Wani. The minister
SEHAT Sahulat is a great programme but universal health coverage has a much larger vision. Sehat Sahulat is a state-financed health insurance system for the curative care of hospitalised patients, whereas UHC means healthcare for all. After the universalisation of the Sehat Sahulat programme in the federal areas, KP and Punjab, the term `universal health insurance` is increasingly being used in policy discussions. Many senior policymakers bureaucrats and politicians continue to equate UHI with
DADU: Police have arrested 15-year-old murder suspect, who confessed to strangling an eight-year-old girl to death in Kotri on April 8 and said he had been jobless for a long time and hungry for three days when he tried to snatch gold earrings from the girl and killed her when she threatened to tell on him. Jamshoro SSP Tariq Nawaz told a press conference at his office on 18 April 2024 that the suspect
Many children have been affected by measles in the Swabi district and locals have demanded of health department to take prompt measures to control ‘outbreak’ of the disease according to Dawn news. Nizar Khan, a resident of Lalbeg village, told Dawn that his two daughters were suffering from measles and many children in his neighbourhood were also affected by the disease. He said two daughters of his brother Fazl Mohammad were also suffering from
LAHORE: In response to the pressing need for accessible and high-quality emergency healthcare for children in Pakistan, an organisation has introduced an innovative telemedicine network in district and tehsil hospitals of Punjab, providing critical consultations to children in remote areas. The initiative aims to address the alarming child mortality rates in the country, with 1,000 children losing their lives daily due to various illnesses. The experts say with two-thirds of Pakistan’s population residing in
IT was on Ashura, Aug 19, 2021, when nine year-old Priya Kumari went missing. Just before her disappearance or abduction she had been happily helping her father a syncretic Hindu who runs a sabeel every year in Muharram in Sangrar, a small town near Sukkur serve sherbet to thirsty mourners. It is a curious case. For one, she `disappeared` from a place that was thronged with hundreds of people, and yet, reportedly, the police