BARA: Girls’ education in Khyber district, particularly in Bara tehsil, is confronting serious challenges. While a large number of educational institutions exist on paper, the severe shortage of basic facilities, teaching staff, and modern learning opportunities has badly affected the entire education system. According to official statistics, there are 420 government girls’ schools in Khyber district. In Bara tehsil alone, there are 132 girls’ primary schools, nine middle schools, five high schools, and only
Child Rights in Focus
The other day, a private educational institution offered me an opportunity to guide its students on how to solve the question paper in board exams to achieve maximum marks or at least how to avoid deduction of marks because of lack of right and relevant information. The selected students, the institution’s high achievers so far, evinced keen interest in the session by listening to every bit of information I shared with them. Though the
KARACHI: A sessions court has sentenced a man to 14 years in prison in a case pertaining to sexually assaulting a minor boy within the jurisdiction of the Sukhan police station. The additional district and sessions judge (Malir) found Sher Ali guilty for committing rape with a six-year-old boy in a room at his place in Cattle Colony in 2023. The court also imposed a fine of Rs1 million on the convict and he
KARACHI: The Karachi police on Monday arrested four members of an organised network involved in leaking Matric and Intermediate Board examination papers, collecting millions of rupees from students in exchange. The Karachi police chief had assigned the Special Investigation Unit (SIU) the task of tracing the network, which comprised 10 groups that leaked exam papers to students via WhatsApp a night before the examinations. SIU Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Samiullah Soomro, speaking to The
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s HIV crisis is worsening. Nearly 79 percent of people living with HIV do not know they are infected, and most of those who are diagnosed are not receiving treatment. Health experts raised serious concerns on Saturday and called for accountability in healthcare system, along with an independent audit of more than $1.1 billion in international funding used to fight HIV, tuberculosis and malaria. At a press conference at National Press Club, former
• Health experts say between 2010 and 2024, AIDS-related deaths in Pakistan increased 6.4-fold, rising from 2,200 to 14,000 annually • New HIV diagnoses in Larkana exceeded 2,000 • Doctors stress need for using disposable syringes KARACHI: Expressing serious concern over the recurring healthcare-associated disease outbreaks in the country, experts on Saturday called for strict nationwide enforcement of single-use syringe policies and infection control protocols at health facilities. Against the backdrop of the escalating
A highly ambitious plan to enrol half of the 25.1 million out-of-school children in Pakistan by 2030 has just been undertaken by the Sindh government in collaboration with UNICEF. The move aims to tackle larger issues such as poverty, child labour, gender discrimination and access to education over the next five years to improve the country’s literacy. It goes without saying that ‘addressing’ issues like poverty, discrimination and the like is a highly simplified
HIV/AIDS is rapidly becoming one of Pakistan’s most serious healthcare concerns. According to the WHO, new infections have risen by 200 per cent over the last 15 years – from 16,000 in 2010 to 48,000 in 2024. The WHO also estimates that 350 000 people are living with HIV in Pakistan, but, most alarmingly, almost 8 in 10 persons affected do not know their status. Why do so many people not know their HIV/AIDs
• 159 patients admitted to three city hospitals this year • Majority of them contracted the incurable virus due to ‘unsafe healthcare practices’ • Alarm raised over lack of basic infection control protocols in hospitals KARACHI: Three hospitals in Karachi have recorded a dramatic increase in the number of paediatric human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) cases over the last nine months and their numbers continue to grow, it emerged on Friday. According to sources, 10
PESHAWAR: A single-member Peshawar High Court bench has granted bail to an Afghan juvenile arrested by police for illegal stay in the country. Chief Justice S M Attique Shah accepted the bail plea of the Afghan national on condition of furnishing two surety bonds of Rs100,000 each. The petitioner was arrested by officials of the Saddar police station in Hangu district, on March 2, 2026, and charged under Section 14 of the Foreigners Act
On social media, a wave of videos recently exposed students using advanced gadgets to cheat in examinations. While the focus has been on policing misconduct, a deeper issue remains unexamined: students are not disengaging from education because of a lack of discipline, but because they increasingly question its value. For most students in Pakistan, particularly those enrolled in public institutions, education is not pursued for the love of knowledge – it is pursued as
AN HIV outbreak among children should have been a turning point for Taunsa’s main public hospital. Instead, an investigation by the BBC suggests that little has changed. Undercover footage from the Tehsil Headquarters Hospital, filmed about eight months after the government’s crackdown in March 2025, shows syringes being reused, injections administered through clothing, and unqualified volunteers treating children with contaminated vials — each lapse a potential death sentence. HIV is not like any other infection. It is a lifelong,