RAWALPINDI: Out of a total of 1,809 government schools in Rawalpindi district, 323 schools will be outsourced from Sept 1 to the Punjab Education Foundation (PEF), which will assign them to individuals, NGOs, and other organisations to run. PEF is an autonomous organisation established in 1991 by the Punjab government to promote education through public-private partnerships. The foundation provides financial assistance to private schools, enabling them to offer free education to deserving children. On
Child Rights in Focus
KARACHI: The first phase of the ongoing anti-polio drive was completed on 20 August with over 95 percent coverage in 40 high-risk and super high-risk union committees, officials associated with the polio eradication initiative said. Under the drive, children under the age of five years are being administered fractional Inactivated Polio Vaccine (fIPV) along with oral polio drops. “Our teams successfully vaccinated over 95 percent of children in the initial 40 UCs during the
LAHORE: Tension escalated at the Fatima Jinnah Medical University (FJMU) and the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital here on 20 August when hundreds of lady doctors and medical students took to the streets to condemn the rape attempt on a minor girl on the hospital’s premises here on Tuesday. The medics came to the support of the five-year-old victim for the ‘delayed’ response by the institute’s management, calling Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz to take notice
PESHAWAR: Dozens of private school teachers protested outside the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly here on August 20 against the sealing of their educational institutions by the Peshawar Development Authority. Forty-two privately-owned schools were recently closed by the PDA over illegal operations in Hayatabad Township’s residential areas. The protesters demanded the immediate sealing of their schools and said if that didn’t happen, they would protest outside the Chief Minister’s House and PDA offices. President of the
LAHORE: The Punjab Labour Code 2024 has sparked widespread opposition from almost all major labour organizations in the province, which think that the new regulations would violate workers’ rights. The labour groups term the code a move that undermines job security, legalises exploitative labour practices, and imposes restrictions on unions. They vow to launch a resistance movement if the government tries to implement the code unilaterally. The Punjab Labour Code 2024 was introduced as
ISLAMABAD: The Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) has announced the launch of a new $7.2 million nutrition and immunisation programme in Pakistan. This initiative aims to support one million mothers and children in the most marginalised areas across the four provinces. The programme is being implemented in partnership with federal and provincial governments, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and The Power of Nutrition (TPoN). According to a statement, Pakistan faces significant challenges in child health, including
PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa health department has screened over 15,000 passengers for mpox at Peshawar airport and Torkham border but didn’t detect any symptoms of the viral infection, officials said on August 19. They also revealed that the National Institute of Health (NIH) in Islamabad had found the strain in the recently confirmed mpox case from Mardan district to be clade 2B of the virus. Officials told a meeting of the provincial Outbreak and Response Committee
QUETTA: After almost a dozen cases of poliovirus in Balochistan since January, an emergency meeting was held in Quetta on 18 August, attended by the deputy commissioners of all 35 districts of the province. The meeting was held to prepare a strategy for the fight against the polio virus, which has crippled 14 children in the country so far. Balochistan remained an epicenter of the disease, with 11 cases reported from seven districts — Dera Bugti,
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on 20th August said that the government had established the Pakistan Education Endowment Fund to support children from low-income families to obtain higher education. The announcement comes months after PM Shehbaz declared an education emergency in the country and vowed to get around 26 million out-of-school children enrolled. According to Abdullah A. Fadil, the representative for United Nations Children’s Funds (Unicef) in Pakistan, over 70 percent of children aged 10 in Pakistan could not read
GUJAR KHAN: Jhelum police have solved the blind murder of a six-year-old boy by arresting his 13-year-old relative. Abdul Jabbar, a resident of Kotha Purana area, told Kala Gujaran police on August 6 that the body of his son, Usman, with his throat slit was found under a tree near his residence. After extensive investigations, police succeeded in arresting the suspect, identified as Abdullah, 13, a close relative of the victim. Talking to Dawn,
RAHIM YAR KHAN: The Punjab School Education Department (SED) has decided to privatise government schools under a public-private partnership model in the coming months and Rahim Yar Khan will be the most affected district with the private sector taking over the maximum number of schools — 1,000 out of 2,777 — among all districts of the province. Initially, as many as 13,000 out of 49,000 schools across Punjab will be handed over to the
As the climate crisis continues to escalate, the pressure to implement sectoral policies will also increase. It is often said that climate change is multi-sectoral therefore making it difficult to implement policies after the 18th Amendment. However, beyond that, no mention is made of how to bridge the gap between policy and implementation, affix responsibility, monitor progress, and make systemic functions robust and accountable. It has become common practice to identify problems and attribute