A sessions court has sentenced a school van driver to 14-year imprisonment for sexually abusing a minor girl. Owais Khan, the driver of a school van, was found guilty of sexually abusing a seven-year-old girl while she was alone in the vehicle. Additional Sessions Judge (Central) Mirza Tauseef Ahmed observed that the accused was liable for conviction for offence of sexual abuse as defined under Section 377-A of Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) and punishment
Child Rights in Focus
The Anti-Violent Crime Cell (AVCC) police on September 3 recovered 10 abducted children from different parts of Karachi and arrested three suspects involved in the kidnappings. According to an AVCC spokesperson, the Sindh Inspector General of Police had tasked the unit on August 27, 2025, to trace and recover recently abducted children from the city. Acting on these directives, SSP AVCC Asif Baloch constituted zonal teams under the supervision of the DSP Operations and
Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has directed the Sindh Social Protection Authority (SSPA) to expand its Maternal & Child Support Programme (MCSP), also known as the Mamta programme, to seven additional districts, increasing the total coverage to 22 districts. The expansion is aimed at improving maternal & child health by providing integrated healthcare services to pregnant and lactating women, along with enhanced cash support. The decision was taken during the second board
LAHORE: Two veiled women allegedly kidnapped a newborn boy from the nursery unit of the Lahore General Hospital, highlighting negligence on the part of the institute’s management. The incident left the child’s mother in a state of trauma. Resident of Kahna area, Zeenat Bibi had given birth to a boy two days back and he was placed under medical observation at the nursery unit of the LGH. On Monday noon, two women entered the
LAHORE: Tent cities for flood victims have been set up near homes in the affected areas of Punjab. Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif was informed during a briefing that a tent city has been set up along with a flood relief camp in Athara Hazari tehsil of Jhang district. Officials said arrangements have been made to provide accommodation and food to flood victims in the tent city. Doctors and medical staff are also present
RAWALPINDI: The prices of textbooks from first year to post-graduation have risen drastically as the fees of both government and private colleges also continue to increase. In 2025, the increase in school expenses has set a record in Punjab’s history. Due to crushing inflation, parents are unable to enrol their children in colleges after matriculation. For the new academic session 2025-27, there has been a record decline in new admissions in first-year classes in
ISLAMABAD/QUETTA: As a new polio case was found in Tank district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, taking the total number of cases detected this year to 24, a week-long special anti-polio campaign was launched in 26 of the 36 districts of Balochistan on 1st September amid tight security. The latest polio case involved a 20-month-old girl from Ping union council of Tank district, an official of NIH confirmed. “This is the 14th polio case from southern Khyber
PESHAWAR: The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Assembly on September 02 approved four important pieces of legislation, including the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Climate Action Board Bill 2025 and the Ease of Doing Business Bill 2025, marking a significant step toward strengthening climate governance and creating a more investment-friendly environment in the province. The passage of the Climate Action Board Bill comes amid rising concerns over climate change, melting glaciers, and rapid deforestation that threaten livelihoods, agriculture, and water security
The Rawalpindi Police on 3rd September said they had arrested the principal of a private academy over the alleged rape and forced abortion of a Grade 10 student. The student, a resident of Khayaban-i-Sir Syed of Rawalpindi’s Pirwadhai town, had lodged a first information report (FIR) with the police on Monday under Sections 338A (punishment for Isqat-i-haml) and 376i (punishment for rape) of the Pakistan Penal Code, alleging that her academy’s principal raped her multiple
ISLAMABAD: Public health authorities have sounded the alarm over a looming wave of epidemics in flood-hit districts, warning that stagnant water, contaminated supplies and overcrowded relief camps are creating the perfect storm for disease outbreaks. Officials from the Ministry of National Health Services, Regulation and Coordination (NHSR&C) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Islamabad have issued urgent advisories to prevent what they described as “an epidemic within a disaster” following the World Health
PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Food Safety and Halal Food Authority on Tuesday carried out a major operation near Javed Town on Peshawar Ring Road in the provincial capital and seized a large cache of expired and hazardous food items. According to the authority’s spokesperson, more than 2,000 cartons of expired branded noodles and over 3,000 kilograms of expired candies, chips, biscuits and juices were recovered during the raid. In addition, harmful substances, including artificial
The first meeting of the 11th National Finance Commission (NFC) to discuss and finalise a new award was postponed last week due to flood emergency in the country, which demanded urgent government attention and resource mobilisation to mitigate potential human and material losses. Background research, however, revealed that, compared to the federation, the provinces were entering the NFC parleys relatively underprepared. While the federal Ministry of Finance reportedly built its case on systematic studies