• Becomes available free of charge for nine-year-old girls at EPI centres • Other provinces expected to follow suit KARACHI: In an effort to protect young girls from cervical cancer, the Sindh Health Department, in line with a decision by the Federal Directorate of Immunisation, has included the HPV (human papillomavirus) vaccine in the province’s routine immunisation programme. Other provinces are also expected to roll out similar initiatives in the coming months. According to
Child Rights in Focus
ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) in a ruling has censured the capital police for grossly exceeding their lawful authority, declaring an arrest carried out without due legal process as “kidnapping” and ordering disciplinary as well as penal action against the officials involved. Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani issued a detailed 16-page written judgement while dismissing the police case registered against Mohammad Waqas, Aleem Sohail, his wife Sana Sohail and Arham Waqas. The court also
MUZAFFARABAD: A joint team of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) and Punjab police on December 31 recovered the bodies of three minor children from a village in Bhimber district, nearly two weeks after they were allegedly murdered and buried by their mother and her paramour, police said. DSP Bhimber Rashid Habib Masoodi told Dawn by telephone that the case came to light after the children’s father, Rizwan Iqbal, lodged an FIR at the
ISLAMABAD: Federal Education Minister Dr. Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui has launched FDE quality education and innovation roadmap for Islamabad schools and colleges. According to a press release issued by education ministry on Wednesday, Secretary Education Nadeem Mahbub, Federal Directorate of Education (FDE), Director General Syed Junaid Akhlaq and senior officials from the FDE and the Project Coordination Unit (PCU) were also present at the launching ceremony. The FDE is regulatory body of over 430 schools
LAHORE: The heart surgeries of 9,269 children have been performed completely free of cost in hospitals across the province under the Chief Minister’s Children’s Heart Surgery Programme. Provincial Health Minister Khwaja Salman Rafique said this while addressing a meeting on December 30 to review the initiative for improving cardiac facilities for children in Punjab. The meeting was chaired by Adviser to chief minister on the Children Heart Surgery Programme and Punjab Institute of Cardiology
RAWALPINDI: With the close of 2025, a record and alarming increase has been witnessed in meetings between divorced parents and their separated children at the family facilitation centre of the Rawalpindi Judicial Complex. The rise, which continued throughout the year on a monthly basis, is primarily attributed to the growing divorce rate. Previously, meetings with separated children were allowed once a week on a designated day with the permission of a family judge. However,
ISLAMABAD: The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) says that as Pakistan enters 2026 as the world’s fifth most populous country, with a population exceeding 225 million, high population growth and fertility rates, persistent gender inequality, and rising climate vulnerability, the urgency of addressing population dynamics has intensified. These realities underscore the need to view population not as a burden but as a strategic driver of sustainable and inclusive development, UNFPA Pakistan said in a
RAWALPINDI: The National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) has investigated 2,196 cybercrime cases this year, including ransomware attacks, online fraud, data breaches, and cyber-enabled financial crimes. It has also detained 2,902 suspects and disrupted five significant organised cybercrime networks that would operate both domestically and abroad in the current year. The NCCIA has also planned to launch a National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal to streamline citizen reporting and establish a dedicated “joint investigation team”
RAWALPINDI: A project aimed at improving students’ handwriting has been finalised and approved, followed by a formal agreement between the Punjab Education Foundation (PEF) and Educational National Services (CNS). Under the agreement, the students in PEF-affiliated schools will receive specialised training in handwriting, writing skills and calligraphy. The agreement was signed by PEF Deputy Managing Director (Support Services) Bushra Naseer and CNS Chief Executive Amjad Hassan. News Published in Express Tribune on December 31st,
KARACHI: A meeting chaired by CM Murad Ali Shah on December 30 decided to put 21 schools of three town municipal corporations under the management of The Citizen Foundation for a period of 25 years to provide free quality education. The meeting was attended by provincial ministers, advisers, special assistants, Chief Secretary Asif Hyder Shah and relevant secretaries. In education, the cabinet approved agreements between Town Municipal Corporations of Malir, Chanesar and Lyari with
ISLAMABAD: On December 30, the government approved an additional budget for the military to procure bulletproof vehicles for the transportation of schoolchildren in Balochistan, according to an official handout released by the Ministry of Finance. The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet, in a meeting chaired by Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb, approved a Rs2.1 billion supplementary budget after reviewing a summary submitted by the Defence Division. The ECC approved the summary for a
KARACHI: A major terror plot was thwarted by law enforcers in the city on December 29 as they rescued a school-going teenage girl who had been radicalised through social media by an outlawed militant group and was being prepared for a suicide attack in Karachi. This was shared by Sindh Home Minister Ziaul Hasan Lanjar during a press conference at the Central Police Office. The minister said that the girl was detained during routine