RAWALPINDI: The Board Committee of Chairmen of all nine educational boards of the province has approved the abolition of the traditional manual system of paper marking and monitoring for matriculation and intermediate annual examinations, replacing it with a new system. Under the new system, biometric attendance of all male and female students appearing in examinations has been declared mandatory. From 2026, thumb impressions will be compulsory for the registration of Class 9 and Class
Child Rights in Focus
Rawalpindi: The Pakistan Thalassemia Welfare Society Rawalpindi -Islamabad (TWS), continues to provide essential support and treatment to children and individuals living with thalassemia while emphasizing that this hereditary disease can be prevented from affecting future generations through timely awareness and proper precautions. These views were expressed by former provincial health minister and senior vice president of the society, Dr Jamal Nasir, during an executive committee meeting. He stressed that thalassemia is not an incurable
ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Friday directed to produce all four children in a family dispute related to the custody of kids. Hearing the application of the mother of the children, Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani remarked that disputes can occur between husband and wife, but they should not be turned into a fight between parents. The husband and wife appeared in the court along with their respective lawyers. The court directed all
LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) has urged the legislature to enact a clear law governing the dissolution of marriage when a non-Muslim woman embraces Islam, observing that the absence of such legislation for over three decades has created legal uncertainty and hardship. In his recent judgment, Justice Tariq Saleem Sheikh referred to the Safia Bibi case of 1997, noting that the Constitution, under its principles of policy, protects the institution of marriage and
KHUZDAR: The bodies of two teenagers were found hanging from a tree in the Uthal area of Lasbela district on February 4 in what police believe to be an suicide related to a marriage dispute. Police identified the victims as an 18-year-old boy, Neelo, and a 17-year-old girl, Paro. Both belonged to the Kohli community and were originally from Mirpurkhas district in Sindh, police said. Upon receiving the report of bodies in Kandiaro village,
LOWER DIR: Jamaat-i-Islami deputy chief and former MNA Maulana Attaur Rehman has termed bills on child marriage and domestic violence a ‘conspiracy to erode Pakistan’s Islamic identity’, saying such legislation will not be accepted. He was speaking at the annual function in a religious seminary in Miskini Jandol as chief guest here the other day. Local elders, religious scholars, students and a large number of residents of the area attended the function. More than
MULTAN: The increasing use of mobile phones, tablets, and laptops is contributing to weak eyesight and other visual problems among children, a leading eye specialist has warned. Dr Rashid Qamar Rao, Head of the Ophthalmology Department and Principal of Nishtar Medical College, said that although digital screens do not directly damage eyesight, their excessive and improper use is negatively affecting children’s vision. He noted a sharp rise in complaints of eye strain, dryness, headaches,
KARACHI: A recently conducted government-commissioned survey has revealed that Punjab has better education and health facilities compared to other provinces, while Sindh and Balochistan remain the most underdeveloped province in this regard. These figures come from the Household Integrated Economic Survey 2024-25, conducted by the federal institution, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics. The survey is carried out every five years; however, this was the first time a digital survey was conducted. According to the
PESHAWAR: A 16-year-old boy was fatally shot when police opened fire on a vehicle that failed to stop at a checkpoint in Hayatabad’s Industrial Road area, triggering outrage among locals and prompting a road blockade protest by the victim’s family. According to police and family accounts, the incident occurred when the teenager, identified as Talha Ali son of Manzoor Ali, resident of Safaid Dheri, was returning from shopping in the Jamrud industrial area along
• Unicef says children’s photos are being manipulated and sexualised through AI tools • In some countries, as many as one in 25 children reported having their images turned into sexual deepfakes ISLAMABAD: Unicef has said it is increasingly alarmed by reports of a rapid rise in the volume of AI-generated sexualised images circulating online, including cases in which photographs of children have been manipulated and sexualised. The organisation has urged governments and industry
JUST when we thought Pakistan had made meaningful progress and the debate on child marriage was nearly settled, a spanner has been thrown into the spokes of reform. Four years after the Federal Shariat Court’s ruling in 2021 that setting a minimum marriage age is not in contradiction with Islam, the debate has resurfaced. This time, it has done so with a troubling precedent set by JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman — in the
As the international world processes the heinous amounts of child sexual abuse data released from the Epstein files, at home the National Cyber Crimes Investigation Agency of FIA has uncovered a major network involved in the sexual exploitation of children via blackmail. A prime suspect, hailing from Murree, has been arrested as part of the operation uncovering over 600 obscene videos of children. The severity of this case simply cannot be overstated. In a