DIJKOT: The body of five-year-old boy who had gone missing from Islampura was found in a canal in Chiniot. The child Azaan, had gone missing while playing outside his home. A kidnapping case was registered. During a protest by his family, Lyallpur Town SP Abid Hussain Zafar and other officials reached the spot and assured the protesters that the case was being pursued. The body was later shifted to the Allied Hospital for post-mortem.
Child Rights in Focus
BAHAWALPUR: Musafirkhana police in Bahawalpur district claimed to have killed three alleged rapists and killers of a minor boy while a constable suffered injuries during an ‘encounter’ near Mohani village, about 30 kilometres from here, on March 12. According to police PRO Rao Kashif, acting on a tip-off, a team conducted a raid on the suspects’ hideout during the night. Upon spotting the police team, the three suspects, along with their four accomplices, allegedly
KARACHI: Pakistan faces an escalating crisis of kidney failure, largely driven by consumption of contaminated water. The country is projected to see nearly 25,000 to 50,000 new end-stage renal disease patients this year alone who will require life-saving dialysis or transplantation. These concerns were raised by Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) in a message released on Thursday in connection with World Kidney Day. This year’s theme is ‘Kidney health for all — caring for people,
The National Assembly’s passage of the bill mandating premarital thalassaemia screening in Islamabad is a much-needed first step towards reducing the incidence of the potentially deadly blood disorder. The disorder, which is hereditary, has an unusually high rate of incidence in countries such as Pakistan and areas with large South Asian populations because of disproportionately high numbers of marriages between cousins. While many people with thalassemia do not show symptoms, the disorder usually leads
RAWALPINDI: A key meeting of district education authorities regarding improvements in teaching and academic standards for the 2026-27 academic session concluded on Thursday with the approval of a comprehensive set of administrative and academic measures across Punjab. Under decisions taken at the meeting, all government schools will be required to raise donations to meet operational expenses and establish a “Zakat Bank” to support deserving students and school needs. Schools will also display donor boards
LAHORE: A two-and-a-half-year-old child died after falling into an open manhole in Raiwind. According to officials, the toddler reportedly fell into the sewer manhole and died. The Lahore deputy inspector general (operations) sought a report from the Saddar superintendent of police regarding the circumstances surrounding the incident. He ordered legal action against those found responsible for negligence that led to the child’s death. The police registered a case and initiated legal proceedings in connection
Pakistan has once again found itself in the middle of a rapidly expanding public health challenge: childhood obesity. The latest findings from the World Obesity Atlas 2026 should ideally serve as a wakeup call for our health authorities. Since 2010, the prevalence of obesity among Pakistani children and adolescents has been rising by an estimated 10.6 per cent annually, one of the fastest growth rates in the world. At present, roughly 18 million children
Pakistan possesses a demographic profile that could either become its greatest asset or its most destabilising liability. Unfortunately, we are headed in the wrong direction. To understand the scale of the challenge, it is important to recognise the extent of Pakistan’s educational underinvestment. Unesco has advised a minimum of 4-6 per cent expenditure for education, which our leaders have constantly ignored. Pakistan has been consistently spending only 1.7-1.9 per cent of its budget on
BAHAWALPUR: The Musafir Khana police have recovered the body of a 12-year-old boy from a graveyard in Goth Mehro, around 30 kilometers from the city. The authorities suspect the victim was murdered following a sexual assault. The victim, identified as Muhammad Javed, son of Abdul Hamid, went missing on the night of March 7 after leaving home to buy candies. Following an unsuccessful search, his father registered an abduction case (FIR No. 151/26) under
EVERY day, in homes across Pakistan, millions of children are quietly being left behind. Not by flood or famine, earthquake or epidemic, but by the slow, invisible erosion of chronic undernutrition. The crisis unfolding concerns the 40 percent of Pakistani children under five who are stunted, the nearly 10m children affected by chronic growth failure and the millions more whose brain development is compromised during the most critical window of human life. This will
DIJKOT: A four-year-old girl was allegedly abducted and strangled by a teenage cousin, police said on Mar 10. According to the police, Muhammad Imtiaz, a resident of Sulaimania Colony, reported that his granddaughter, Anaya Jannat, had gone outside to play but gone missing. The police registered a case and initiated a search, reviewing CCTV footage from the area. In the footage, a 14-year-old resident of the same locality, was seen taking away the child
RAWALPINDI: The Secretary for Schools Punjab has released funds totalling Rs3.271 billion for government schools across the province to meet routine expenditures, including utility bills, furniture repairs, and the salaries of security guards and sweepers. According to official sources, the allocated funds will be transferred to the respective District Education Authorities’ government accounts through District Accounts Offices (DAOs) within two days. Thereafter, the amounts will be disbursed from the accounts of District Education Officers