KARACHI: A study co-authored by researchers from the Department of Community Health Sciences and Medicine at the Aga Khan University has revealed an alarming prevalence of second-hand smoking (SHS) exposure among children in Pakistan and Bangladesh, with 95 percent of children affected. SHS occurs when non-smokers inhale the exhaled tobacco fumes from an active smoker, highlighting the pervasive impact of smoking in environments with lax smoking restrictions. The study’s findings, published in the Nicotine
Child Rights in Focus
ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari on 22 July signed into law the Christian Marriage (Amendment) Act 2024, raising the minimum age for Christian men and women to eighteen years. The president accorded assent to the Act under Article 75 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan during a special ceremony at the Aiwan-e-Sadr on Tuesday. The Act amends Section 60 of the Christian Marriage Act of 1872. Prior to the amendments, the
Five-Year Comparison of Teachers (2019-2024) Sector 2019-20 2020-21 2021-22 2022-24 2023-24 Public 897,208 880,996 861,465 953,437 972,099 Other Public 23,817 27,397 28,350 42,206 67,277 Private 1,155,666 1,201,231 1,249,676 1,580,809 1,618,252 Total 2,076,691 2,109,624 2,139,491 2,576,452 2,657,628 PES 2023-24 Note(s): Mosque Schools are included in Primary Schools. Other Public Sector refers to public institutions run by entities other than MoFE&PT and Provincial/Regional Education Departments.
Religious Minority Enrolment by Province and Stage (Public Sector, 2023–24) Province/Region Pre-Primary Primary Middle High Higher Secondary Total ICT 729 3,590 2,140 909 83 7,451 Balochistan 628 2,276 901 621 50 4,535 KP 360 1,051 771 410 172 2,764 Punjab 22,560 82,653 47,096 25,069 1,809 179,187 Sindh – – – – – 384,484 Pakistan Education Statistics 2023-24 Religious Minorities Enrolment by Province, Stage, Gender and Location- Public Sector (2023-2024) Stage Urban Rural
Percentage of Refugee Children Enrolled in Public Schools Province/Region Boys (%) Girls (%) Total (%) National 0.44 0.3 0.38 ICT 0.44 0.18 0.28 Balochistan 1.26 1.15 1.21 KP 1.4 1.02 1.23 Punjab 0.05 0.04 0.05 Sindh 0 0 0.02 PES 2023-24 Refugee Enrolment by Province, Stage, Gender and Location- Public Schools (2023-2024) Stage Urban Rural Total Boys Girls Total Boys Girls Total Boys Girls Total Pakistan Pre-Primary 5106 4783 9956 7674 5355
Class-wise Enrolment by Education and Gender 2023-24 (Public, Other Public & Private) Class Public Other Public Private Total Boys Girls Total Boys Girls Total Boys Girls Total Boys Girls Total Pre-Primary Un- admitted 217,483 217,385 434,868 103,385 86,064 189,449 562,822 533,752 1,096,574 883,690 837,201 1,720,891 Kachi 2,208,219 2,028,094 4,236,313 88,977 71,868 160,845 1,743,735 1,738,814 3,482,549 4,040,931 3,838,776 7,879,707 Total 2,425,702 2,245,479 4,671,181 192,362 157,932 350,294 2,306,557 2,272,566 4,579,123 4,924,621 4,675,977 9,600,598 Primary Class
MIRANSHAH: Suspected militants destroyed a portion of a government-run girls’ school in a village of Mir Ali tehsil in North Waziristan tribal district, local police said on 22 July. They said that militants had planted explosives in the Government Girls Middle School in Zairki village and triggered a blast with a remote-controlled device late Sunday night As a result, four out of seven rooms of the school building collapsed and a nearby house was
QUETTA: A simultaneous vaccination campaign will be launched on both sides of the Pak-Afghan border next month as officials blame cross-border movement for the dozen cases of the virus reported from Balochistan this year. Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two countries where polio is still endemic. Since January 2024, the former has reported 16 cases of poliovirus, 12 of them from Balochistan, which borders five Afghan provinces. In a press conference on Thursday, Inamul
Pakistan is in the spotlight for having the largest number of out-of-school children (26 million) and millions not learning the basics (ASER 2010-2023). Deficits in access and quality morph into an equity gap with gender and generational impacts. The Prime Minister of Pakistan, within nine weeks of stepping into office, declared a National Education Emergency (May 8, 2024), followed by 14 time-bound directives through the mobilization of the ministries of Finance, Health, and Poverty
A child in Zhob district of Balochistan whose parents had refused to get him vaccinated against polio, bringing the total number of polio cases in 2024 to nine in Pakistan, Pakistan’s Polio Eradication Initiative (PEI) officials said on 20 July 2024. “An 18-month-old male child from Union Council Hassan Zai Urban 2 in Zhob district, Balochistan, has been paralysed by poliovirus. Preliminary investigation revealed that the child did not receive any dose of Oral
The parents of Priya Kumari, who had gone missing at the age of seven years in Sukkur on August 19, 2021, held a sit-in outside the Sindh Chief Minister House on 20 July 2024, following which a government delegation met the girl’s family and assured them of full cooperation. The delegation comprised Home Minister Ziaul Hassan Lanjar, and Pakistan Peoples Party MPAs Mukesh Kumar Chawla, Lal Chand Ukrani, and Sham Sunder Advani. Civil society
Islamabad: In a significant effort to reduce electricity costs and promote sustainability, the Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training has announced a plan to convert 100 primary schools to solar energy in the next two months. The initiative is part of a larger effort to harness renewable energy sources and reduce the city’s carbon footprint. “This project will not only reduce electricity costs but also provide a clean and sustainable source of energy