A horrible tragedy has occurred at the heart of the capital city, shaking the nation to its core. Fourteen newborn babies are dead after a fire tore through the Mother and Child Hospital at PIMS. They were among the most helpless patients imaginable, incapable of fleeing or calling for help. Their parents entrusted them to a state hospital. The state failed them. The tragedy was barely hours old when the machinery of political theatre
Child Rights in Focus
ISLAMABAD: Fourteen infants were killed in a fire that broke out in the gynaecology ward of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) early on August 26. What has happened so far: 14 babies die after fire erupts in ward; initial reports say spark erupted from AC, blaze spread due to oxygen points Bereaved families decry rescue teams arrived “too late”; witnesses report locked doors Health secretary removed; inquiry panel formed on PM’s orders; separate fact-finding committee constituted Health Minister Mustafa
HARIPUR: Haripur District Police Officer (DPO) Shafiullah Gandapur said on August 25 that the force had arrested four suspects in connection with the alleged abduction, sexual assault and murder of a five-year-old girl. Addressing a press conference, the DPO expressed sorrow over the death and said the disappearance or abduction of a child was not merely a family tragedy but a matter of concern for the entire society. According to the police, her father reported her
A child’s journey to school should never be a gamble. Yet in Pakistan, thousands of students travel every day in overcrowded vans, ageing Suzuki vehicles and rickshaws that are often poorly maintained and sometimes fitted with dangerously installed LPG cylinders. That this has been allowed to become routine is itself a serious failure of regulation. The Lahore Traffic Police’s decision to crack down on overloading and the use of LPG cylinders in school transport
Sindh currently operates hundreds of rabies prevention centres that offer free vaccines, available to anyone who simply walks in. Yet, despite this apparent vigilance, the province has already neared the tally for last year’s rabies’ deaths with four months still to go. In 2025, as many as 22 people lost their lives to rabies, and the tally this year so far has already climbed to 21. The recent case of a 24-year-old from Qayyumabad,
The United Kingdom’s (UK’s) collaboration with the Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) provincial governments helped over 200,000 children improve their access to schooling, basic reading, numeracy, and life skills, the British High Commission (BHC) said on Monday. “UK collaboration with provincial governments has helped more than 200,000 children in Punjab and K-P improve their access to schooling, basic reading, numeracy, and life skills. Urdu reading levels rose from 15 per cent to 78 per cent,
• Petitioners seek an effective age-verification mechanism for minors’ accounts • State urged to protect kids from cyberbullying, harassment and harmful online content ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court has been approached seeking directions to the federal government to introduce legislation and a comprehensive regulatory framework to regulate social media use by children under the age of 16. The petition, filed through advocates Muhammad Jalal Haider and Yahya Farid Khawaja, seeks the introduction of an
HARIPUR: Police have arrested three teenage boys for ‘kidnapping’ a five-year-old girl, who went missing about 12 days ago from an urban locality here. One of the accused confessed before the magistrate that he and one of the four accomplices had raped the girl after abduction. He, however, said that he left the place of the crime after committing the rape and did not know about what happened to the girl afterwards. According to
KARACHI: Two patients, including a boy from Sanghar, died of rabies in as many days at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) while a woman from Hyderabad affected by the deadly infectious disease is currently under palliative care at the Indus Hospital, it emerged on August 21. With the latest cases, sources said, the death toll from the infectious disease has risen to 25. Thirteen deaths were reported at Indus Hospital — 12 at
CHAKWAL: An inquiry into the killing of nine-year-old Australian national Hania Ahmed has found a Crime Control Department (CCD) Punjab constable guilty, concluding that he opened indiscriminate fire on a car without prior permission from senior officers. The incident took place on the night of June 10-11 outside the CCD police station in Chakwal city. Adeel Ahmed, an Australian national, his wife and two minor children were being robbed by two armed men when the constable
KARACHI: The Sindh Government Children’s Hospital will complete 10 years under a public-private partnership (PPP) arrangement next month, but the facility has seen little improvement in its capacity and continues to face complaints over delayed salaries and inadequate medical services. The 10-year agreement between the Sindh government and an NGO is set to expire on September 16, 2026. However, the provincial government has yet to announce a decision on the hospital’s future. The hospital
TOBA TEK SINGH: Five suspects were killed and one was arrested in injured condition in alleged encounters with the Crime Control Department (CCD) in Nankana Sahib and Pirmahal. In one incident, three alleged rapists-cum-murderers of a nine-year-old girl were killed on Thursday night. According to police sources, on Aug 17 a minor girl was allegedly kidnapped at gunpoint from her house in Mouza Allyanwala and her body was later found in a pit adjacent