KARACHl: A sessions court has sentenced a man to 10-year rigorous imprisonment on charges of raping an underage girl at an orphanage. Additional District and Sessions Judge (East) Ilyas Memon found accused Mehdi Hassan, a former employee of the orphanage, guilty of raping the teenage girl at a private shelter home in May 2021 within the jurisdiction of the Jamshed Quarters police station. The court imposed a fine of Rs100,000 on the convict and
Child Rights in Focus
The Lahore High Court (LHC) has recently ruled that the Punjab government must establish rules under the Punjab Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2014, to ensure the compliance with this law at private schools. The ruling comes after a private school filed a petition against the denial of a registration certificate by the District Registration Authority in Sahiwal. It also sheds light on the persistent challenges facing the education sector in Pakistan, including issues
According to a news report, an environmental sample collected from Balochistan’s Lasbela district has tested positive for wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1). The virus was found in a sewage sample collected from Lasbela, an official of the Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health (NIH) said. Federal Health Minister Dr Nadeem Jan said that as long as this virus survives, children on both sides of the Pak-Afghan border, and
The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) on Tuesday informed the Sindh High Court that it had no authority to remove any content from social media platforms. The lawyer for the PTA sought more time to file comments on a petition filed against objectionable, unethical, immoral and unlawful content being uploaded on social media platforms. At the last hearing, the SHC had directed the PTA to enforce relevant law and rules to prevent and remove objectionable content on
In Pakistan, there is a rare consensus across political divides and among citizens concerning the dire state of education. Whether it is primary, secondary, or tertiary education, the system’s deficiencies are glaring. At present, there are a staggering 20 million children out of school, representing 40 per cent of the school-going age group. Also, there are nearly 20 million children who attend public-sector schools or low-quality private schools, where learning outcomes are far from
ANIC is on the rise as the alarming surge in pneumonia cases has created an explosion of headlines sans information about prevention and cure. The menacing respiratory affliction has taken an ugly turn: this paper reported yesterday that a shocking 622 cases had come to light over 24 hours in Punjab and 13 more minors had died of the virus. Last month, some 50pc samples from ailing children tested positive for viral pneumonia, with
Pneumonia continues to pose a grave threat to children under the age of 10, as 13 more minors tragically succumbed to this deadly virus in the past 24 hours in Punjab. The total number of fatalities across the province since January 1 has now reached 392, painting a distressing picture of the ongoing crisis. The persistent rise in pneumonia-related casualties among children has not only instilled panic among parents but has also exposed the
An analysis by The Centre for Global Health Inequities Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation published in The Lancet Public Health journal reveals quantified relationship between formal education and life expectancy. Based on the data both from industrialised countries such as the UK and the US as well as developing countries such as China and Brazil, the study says that an adult’s risk of mortality is curtailed by 2% for every year in formal
In a move as surprising as it is contentious, the Sindh provincial government has decreed a generous 15% grace mark for students who faltered in their class XI examinations last year. The decision, prompted by an investigative committee report on the Board of Intermediate Education Karachi’s controversial results, comes as a beacon of hope for the academically flailing youth of Sindh. This decision signals an attempt to address the widespread discontent sparked by the
Pakistan, as a State Party to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), has recently submitted its State Party Report for Reporting Cycle VI-VII. This report serves as a comprehensive overview of Pakistan’s efforts and progress in promoting and protecting the rights of children in accordance with the CRC. The State Party Report provides a detailed account of Pakistan’s legislative, policy, and programmatic measures taken to fulfill its obligations under the CRC.
This report represents a state-of-the-art legislative/policy framework on the issue of child trafficking in Pakistan including recommendations for its effective improvement/implementation. It is published by National Commission on the Rights of Child (NCRC) with the support of UNICEF. Read Policy Briefing on Child Trafficking
The police have arrested a teenage boy for the brutal murder of his seven-year-old cousin in Federal B Area. Authorities have apprehended the victim’s teenage cousin, shedding light on the heinous crime. The lifeless body of seven-year-old Muhammad Aban was discovered in an isolated street, seldom traversed by the public, behind the Karachi Institute of Heart Diseases in F.B Area, Block-16, on Wednesday afternoon. Breaking the news, Central SSP Zeeshan Shafiq Siddiqi informed Dawn