KHYBER: Setting aside the official criteria for upgradation of primary schools, officials of the education department in Khyber adopted a ‘novel’ way to select primary schools for upgradation by conducting a draw in Jamrud tehsil, much to the displeasure of people. Dawn learnt from both official and private sources that the department received at least 15 applications from the management of the same number of primary schools for their upgradation, as per the official
Child Rights in Focus
RAWALPINDI: The divisional administration has directed the Communication and Works Department to complete work on the Mother and Child Hospital by the end of December and ensure the quality of construction material. Work on the Mother and Child Hospital started in 2005, but the building is still incomplete. The project was launched by former interior minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed during the government of Gen Pervez Musharraf. Former prime minister Shaukat Aziz inaugurated the project
PAKISTAN’s presence among countries with the fastest-growing HIV epidemic in Asia is a matter of shame. Globally, the virus is found in drug addicts, sex workers and other high-risk sections. What makes our crisis more distressing is the victims’ profile: children and low-risk groups who have been infected because of a broken healthcare system. Sindh’s health department has said that the necessary measures were in place to curb HIV’s spread, including 44 antiretroviral therapy
SAHIWAL: The matriculation results of 409 candidates appearing in the Secondary School Certificate (First Annual) Examination 2026 has been halted by the Sahiwal Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE) due to discrepancies in their fee vouchers. According to a statement issued by the board, the accounts department had been tasked with auditing and reconciling the paid fee vouchers of all candidates who appeared in the examination with actual bank statements. It is important
BAHAWALNAGAR: The Minchinabad Police have been allegedly ignoring court orders in a minor’s rape case even after a court ordered to register FIRs against four SHOs concerned and prohibiting the case investigating officer (IO) from any public role on account of the misconduct. As per details, a cleric was arrested on July 13 for sexually assaulting his 14-year-old student over a two-year period and impregnated her. During a court hearing on July 14, IO
MAILSI: An eighth-grade student was allegedly tied up with ropes and subjected to physical assault by influential villagers who suspected him of stealing pigeons in Chak 187-WB, prompting his family to seek police action and protection. According to the family, the incident took place in the jurisdiction of Tibba Sultanpur police station. The student, identified as Farhan, was allegedly detained by influential residents of the village on suspicion of stealing pigeons. The suspects allegedly
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan recorded 1,914 reported cases of child abuse during the first six months of 2026, including more than 1,000 cases of child sexual abuse, according to a new report released by child protection NGO Sahil. The report also documented hundreds of abductions, missing children, child marriages and cases involving child pornography. The report, compiled from incidents published in national and regional newspapers across all four provinces, Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), Azad Jammu and
THE Sindh government’s agreement with the World Bank to combine health, nutrition, sanitation, social protection and agriculture programmes acknowledges that child stunting cannot be treated by the health department alone. The proposed secretariat, district committees and dashboard could replace scattered schemes with targets and accountability. But institutional architecture will mean little unless it reaches mothers and children consistently. More than 40pc of Pakistani children under five are stunted, while Unicef estimates that nearly 10m
RAWALPINDI: A six-year-old girl went missing and was suspected to have been swept away in an open drain/nullah near Committee Chowk, Lunda Bazar, in the early hours of August 6. However, on the complaint of the girl’s father, the City police later registered a kidnapping case and launched an investigation. According to initial reports, the girl’s father was putting children in his car to return home after visiting his relatives when the girl, Hareen
KARACHI: The Senate committee on August 6 sought details of the Sindh Healthcare Commission’s (SHCC) findings from its recent inspection of Kulsoom Bai Valika Hospital, run by the Sindh Employees Social Security Institution (SESSI), where nearly 100 children were found to be infected with HIV/AIDs. It also asked the provincial authorities to assess, in light of those findings, whether the facility should be granted a licence, which it has yet to obtain. The directives were issued
THE deaths of 144 children from measles and diphtheria in Karachi during the first seven months of the year expose a grave failure of routine immunisation. That failure is evident in the large number of children who receive their earliest vaccines but are never brought back for the doses needed to complete their protection. Officials may cite a decline in reported cases, but that offers little comfort when hospitals continue to record such a
EVERY year in August, Breastfeeding Week arrives with the same kind of messaging all over the media: ‘breastfeeding is best’. That is where the conversation begins and ends. This year, the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action, alongside Unicef and the WHO, has deliberately questioned the math behind it all, instead of general awareness. The 2026 theme is ‘Breastfeeding for a sustainable start in life: strengthen what works’. This signifies that the world does not