RAWALPINDI: Family courts in Rawalpindi received a record 1,428 divorce and khula petitions in September, the first working month after summer vacations, setting a new benchmark in the district’s judicial history. According to official data, 396 runaway girls contracted court or love marriages during the same period. Additionally, 266 guardianship cases were filed in Rawalpindi city, cantonment, and tehsil areas. In Gujar Khan, 284 family cases were registered, and in Taxila, 102. Another 210
Child Rights in Focus
LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) dismissed the pre-arrest bail petition of a man charged with committing immoral acts with a girl child on October 3. Justice Chaudhry Sultan Mahmood heard the bail plea of the suspect, Shehroz Ali, who appeared before the court along with his counsel. Opposing the bail, a deputy district public prosecutor argued that a case had been registered against the suspect with Sanda Police Station. He said the six-year-old
PESHAWAR: The cabinet of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa here on October 3 decided to outsource selected schools and colleges having low student enrolment. The decision was taken during a meeting of the cabinet held here with Chief Minister Ali Amin Khan Gandapur in the chair. The decision is meant to enhance enrollment and improve quality of education. An official statement issued said that after the outsourcing of selected schools and colleges, jobs of existing teachers would
BAHAWALPUR: The police withdrew terrorism charges against a Class X student, Iqra Shafiq, and her father, who were booked and arrested, along with eight other persons, including women, by Uch Sharif police on Aug 10, over a fortnight ago. As per sources, the police removed section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) from the FIR against the father and daughter in the light of an inquiry conducted for the second time into the incident on
KARACHI: A six-member medical team tasked with investigating the circumstances surrounding the death of a young girl from Thull found that her demise was not linked to her inoculation, contrary to the claims of her family. In a report to the head of the Expanded Program on Immunisation in Sindh, the Jacobabad district health officer explained that a nine-year-old girl (mistakenly identified in earlier reports as a teenager) was diagnosed with enteric fever at the
In a shocking incident in Karachi’s Orangi Town, a man killed his son-in-law in the name of ‘honour’ by attacking him with a cleaver and knife, and brutally injured six others, including his wife, three daughters and a teenage son. Police arrested the suspect and recovered the murder weapons. According to police and a statement by the suspect’s injured daughter, the man had mixed intoxicants into drinking water. Once everyone fell unconscious, he launched
RAWALPINDI: The incidences of Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever (DHF) and Dengue Shock Syndrome (DSS), more fatal forms of the infection are recording an alarming increase this year among patients of dengue fever being tested positive as nearly 47 per cent of all patients so far tested positive for dengue fever here at the three Rawalpindi Medical University allied hospitals in town have been diagnosed with DHF or DSS. Data collected by ‘The News’ has revealed
ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Federal Education & Professional Training launched an initiative ‘Connected Classrooms’, a transformative project designed to revolutionise education across the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) schools through cutting-edge digital technology on October 3. Federal Education Minister Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui attended the launching ceremony of the Digital Hub: Connected Classroom, held here at Islamabad College for Girls, F-6/2. “This pioneering program leverages a centrally operated smart classroom, led by expert subject
KARACHI: Over 90 percent of rural households depend on self-supplied drinking water, often drawn from contaminated groundwater sources, which is posing serious health risks and leaving people highly vulnerable to waterborne diseases. This emerged on October 3 during a meeting between Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah and a World Bank delegation led by its Country Director Bolormaa Amgaabazar. The meeting was held to review the proposed Sindh Transformational Accelerated Rural Water Supply,
• ‘Coalition Against Drugs’ to monitor children’s behaviour, attendance, academic performance and social interactions • Those doing drugs should be treated as victims, not criminals, says Shehzad Roy KARACHI: The Campus Security and Substance Abuse Watch Force, comprising 50 police personnel, was established on September 2 to curb the menace of drugs in educational institutions within the jurisdiction of the South Zone of Karachi police. A decision to this effect was taken in a
SUKKUR: A six-member health department team has arrived in Jacobabad to investigate the circumstances surrounding the death of a young girl, who allegedly passed away after being inoculated, officials said on Wednesday. According to Sumaira’s family, the teenager and her younger sister Naseeman had been rushed to a private hospital in Sukkur after they both lost consciousness. Their uncle, Gul Meer, told reporters that the incident occurred after the two were administered the HPV
BAHAWALPUR: Lodhran Additional District and Sessions Judge Muhammad Ayyaz has sentenced three men to 14 years of rigorous imprisonment each for the gang-rape of a nine-year-old boy ‘S’. The court also imposed a fine of Rs1million on each convict. According to the prosecution, Kabir Baloch, Hassan Baloch and Iqbal Baloch gang-raped the boy on the night of Feb 25, 2024. The victim was forcibly taken from a Milad event at a local mosque within