KARACHI: The city saw two deaths from rabies on Tuesday, raising the total number of mortalities from the deadly viral disease to six in the province. The dog-bite victims — 75-year-old Naimat Gul hailing from Lyari and 10-year-old Lata from Mirpurkhas — had been admitted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) and the Indus Hospital on Monday. “The Lyari resident was brought to the hospital’s emergency department where he passed away within 24
Child Rights in Focus
RAWALPINDI: An incident of alleged sexual abuse of a 12-year-old boy in a madrassa at the hands of a seminary teacher, Ibrahim Yaseen, was reported in Rawalpindi on Feb 25. The First Information Report (FIR), reported in the jurisdiction of Gujar Khan Police Station, states that the 12-year-old boy was studying at a madrassa in his village at the village mosque, a double-story building. After completing his duty of calling the prayer (azaan), the
NADRA’S decision to issue CNICs to first-time applicants without requiring them to produce a birth certificate is a practical step. For years, the lack of a computerised birth certificate issued by local governments, especially in rural and underserved districts, has kept thousands of citizens, mostly women, from obtaining a national identity card. In many areas, births are never formally registered, or are recorded in informal ways that fail to meet CNIC requirements, resulting in
KARACHI: A sessions court has sentenced two men to life imprisonment in a kidnap and rape case Additional District and Sessions Judge Abdul Zahoor Chandio, who is also the presiding officer of the Gender-Based Violence Court (South), found Muhammad Arif alias Tunga and Shahbaz alias Chabba guilty and sentenced them on two counts: life imprisonment for committing rape and additional years of jail for kidnapping. However, both the sentences would run concurrently, the court
TAXILA: The headmaster of Government Boys High School Hazro has been suspended following a shocking incident in which a Grade-7 student was seriously injured when another student stabbed him on the school premises, officials confirmed on Feb 23. According to rescue and police sources, the incident occurred during school hours when a minor dispute between two students reportedly turned violent. In a fit of anger over what officials described as a petty disagreement, one
ISLAMABAD: The capital police have arrested 588 professional beggars and registered cases against them in the current year as a crackdown against organised beggars’ mafia continued. The identification process of the facilitators of beggars is ongoing with the help of Safe City cameras and human intelligence sources, said the police in a statement. “Under the special directions of Inspector General of Police (IGP) Islamabad, Syed Ali Nasir Rizvi, Islamabad Police have continued comprehensive operations
RAHIM YAR KHAN: Some video clips surfacing on social media showing students of a government school in the district, who were allegedly made to do hard physical tasks, like transporting bricks and cleaning classroom, have caused concern among the parents and the civil society. These video clips was allegedly recorded at the Government Boys High School at Chak 72-NP on Shahbazpur Road, where young students were engaged in cleaning activities and manually transporting bricks
PESHAWAR: The elementary and secondary education department has directed all the education boards to stop conducting matriculation and intermediate examinations of the students enrolled in private high and higher secondary schools that are not registered with Private Schools Regulatory Authority (PSRA). “Around 387 private high and higher secondary schools are not registered with PSRA but all of them are affiliated with education boards that are conducting matriculation and intermediate examinations of their students,” an
ISLAMABAD: Drug-resistant pathogens causing sepsis, ventilator-associated pneumonia, difficult-to-treat urinary infections and drug-resistant tuberculosis are now among Pakistan’s most serious public health threats, federal health officials say, warning that antimicrobial resistance in priority bacterial and fungal pathogens could claim more than 262,000 lives in the country over the next 25 years unless antibiotic misuse and infection control failures are addressed. Pakistan has become the first country in the World Health Organisation’s Eastern Mediterranean Region to
LAHORE: Punjab’s education system is increasingly being taken over by the private sector, as government policies falter and public institutions are pushed toward privatization. In recent years, academies have become essential for matric and intermediate exam preparation, fostering a marks-driven culture and leaving students heavily reliant on what is now a sprawling coaching cartel. The rising number of tuition centres is alarming educationists and parents alike. Poor teaching quality in government schools, heavy curricular
PESHWAR: Every day, 15-year-old Mashal Khan, a sixth-grade student, walks three kilometres from his home to his government high school in Jalala. The journey takes him longer than other children and is especially arduous because he was born with disability in both feet. “It is very difficult for me to reach school on time and I try to start out earlier than other children,” says Mashal. “But on rainy days, I cannot attend school
Not all parents have an equal chance of success at saving their child from a fatal illness. Unfortunately, while fate determines lifespan, so does geography. According to experts, childhood cancer survival rates exceed 80 per cent in wealthy countries but in low- and middle-income countries, such as Pakistan, they drop below 30 percent. This unsettling reality is underscored by the fact that around 10,000 children are diagnosed with cancer in the country every year.