NORTH WAZIRISTAN: A suspected quadcopter (drone) strike has severely damaged building of Government High School Shamazan Kot in Miami Kabul Khel Doarzinda area of tehsil Shewa here on Feb 26. About 80 percent of the building was destroyed just days before educational institutions were scheduled to reopen on March 1. Fortunately, no casualties were reported. According to sources, a powerful explosion was heard late on Wednesday night, spreading fear and panic among residents. The
Child Rights in Focus
ISLAMABAD: Despite efforts by the federal and provincial governments, the number of out-of-school children remains alarming, as a new government report revealed that 26.2 million children nationwide are still out of school. The Federal Ministry of Education and Professional Training on Thursday released the “Girls’ Education Statistics and Trends Report 2023-24,” which also showed the number of out of school children. It said that 26.2 million children remain out of schools, including 3.4 million
LAHORE: After yet another series of child abuse cases in Kasur, the Crime Control Department (CCD) arrested a serial rapist who had allegedly raped two minor girls and sexually assaulted another, leaving the victims with lifelong physical and psychological trauma. According to the gynecologists, treating the minor girls, aged between four and seven years, the heinous nature of the crime may alter the children’s brain development and affect their adulthood if timely psychological treatment
ISLAMABAD: In response to a surge in cyberattacks and growing digital threats, the federal government has announced emergency measures across federal educational institutions. Acting on special directives from the Prime Minister, the Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training has instructed all educational institutions in Islamabad – including private schools and colleges in both urban and rural areas, as well as Islamabad Model Schools and Colleges – to complete mandatory online training in cybersecurity
RAWALPINDI: Police on 26 Feb arrested a man identified as Ibrahim Yaseen, who was accused of sexually abusing a 12-year-old boy in a madrassa in Rawalpindi. “My son went to offer prayers; on his way back, the suspect who was lying in wait assaulted my son and recorded an indecent video,” said the boy’s father. In the First Information Report filed on Wednesday, the 12-year-old boy was at a madrassa in his village at
ISLAMABAD: The Statistics and Trends Report 2023-24 on girls’ education reveals that a total of 26.2 million children are still out of school, 13.4 million of whom are girls. Regarding facilities for disabled students, the report revealed that 23% of schools have ramps, but there are fewer educational institutions providing special teaching materials or assistive devices. The report also mentions that 23% of teachers in girls’ schools are trained at the foundational level. Only
ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Education and Professional Training Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui on Feb 25 officially launched the No Child Left Behind campaign to bring all out-of-school children into classrooms within the next three years. Pakistan has an alarming 26 million out-of-school children across the country, with no exception in the federal capital, where thousands of children remain out of school. According to the Ministry of Education, the drive is a focused and time-bound initiative aimed
CHINIOT: In the aftermath of the death of a girl at school in Sialkot, the public schools across Punjab have been directed to cordon off under-construction structures and depute one teacher whole time during the school hours to stop the children getting close to under-construction structures. On directions of School Education Department, Chiniot District Education Authority’s Chief Executive Officer Azhar Sohail Niazi has issued instruction and precautionary measures and standard operating procedures (SOPs) to
KARACHI: The city saw two deaths from rabies on Tuesday, raising the total number of mortalities from the deadly viral disease to six in the province. The dog-bite victims — 75-year-old Naimat Gul hailing from Lyari and 10-year-old Lata from Mirpurkhas — had been admitted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) and the Indus Hospital on Monday. “The Lyari resident was brought to the hospital’s emergency department where he passed away within 24
RAWALPINDI: An incident of alleged sexual abuse of a 12-year-old boy in a madrassa at the hands of a seminary teacher, Ibrahim Yaseen, was reported in Rawalpindi on Feb 25. The First Information Report (FIR), reported in the jurisdiction of Gujar Khan Police Station, states that the 12-year-old boy was studying at a madrassa in his village at the village mosque, a double-story building. After completing his duty of calling the prayer (azaan), the
NADRA’S decision to issue CNICs to first-time applicants without requiring them to produce a birth certificate is a practical step. For years, the lack of a computerised birth certificate issued by local governments, especially in rural and underserved districts, has kept thousands of citizens, mostly women, from obtaining a national identity card. In many areas, births are never formally registered, or are recorded in informal ways that fail to meet CNIC requirements, resulting in
KARACHI: A sessions court has sentenced two men to life imprisonment in a kidnap and rape case Additional District and Sessions Judge Abdul Zahoor Chandio, who is also the presiding officer of the Gender-Based Violence Court (South), found Muhammad Arif alias Tunga and Shahbaz alias Chabba guilty and sentenced them on two counts: life imprisonment for committing rape and additional years of jail for kidnapping. However, both the sentences would run concurrently, the court