KARACHI: Until two years ago, Gul-e-Haya was a quiet child. Born with a congenital amputation — her right forearm never developed — she rarely mingled with other children at home or in her class at a small private school in Hyderabad. Her father, 35-year-old Syed Waqas, hoped that she would become more expressive as she grew older. But Gul-e-Haya’s performance at school suggested the opposite, as she retreated into a shell. Even if he
Child Rights in Focus
LAHORE: The Lahore High Court has upheld a conditional remand order in a family dispute, ruling that a father seeking to reopen ex parte proceedings cannot avoid paying maintenance — particularly to a minor child — during fresh trial proceedings. Justice Raheel Kamran dismissed a petition filed by Faizan Kareem, who had challenged a Dec 18, 2025 order passed by an appellate court (additional district and sessions judge) in Ahmadpur East. The appellate court
MUZAFFARABAD: The Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) cabinet on April 23 approved a more than Rs3.7 billion package for school and college education, alongside a series of wide-ranging decisions covering employee regularisation, institutional reforms and legislative amendments. Meeting under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Faisal Mumtaz Rathore, the cabinet also extended the tenure of ad-hoc, temporary and contract employees by six months and approved their partial regularisation under the Regularisation of Ad hoc and
RAWALPINDI: A pair of siblings, a 9-year-old boy and 17-year-old girl, went missing under mysterious circumstances from the Lailyani Rajgan area of Gujar Khan police station, Rawalpindi. The children have been missing for three days. The police have registered a case of child abduction and started an investigation. The father of the children, Yasir Nadeem, had registered a case with the police on April 20. He stated in his complaint that his daughter, M,
MIRPURKHAS: HYDERABAD The multi-billion-rupee corruption scandal at the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE), Mirpurkhas, appears to be engulfing more officials as the Anti-Corruption Establishment widens the scope of its investigation. The ACE Mirpurkhas has summoned five officials – including a deputy secretary of the Sindh Universities and Boards Department and three former chairmen – to record their statements on April 24. The department’s secretary has also been asked to furnish detailed records
MANSEHRA: The Upper Kohistan district administration, the other day, laid the foundation stone of two relocated schools falling within the reservoir area of the Dasu Hydropower Project (DHPP). “These educational institutions are being built under the Local Area Development Programme initiated by DHPP to provide quality education and foster socioeconomic development of local communities,” Azizullah Jan, deputy commissioner of Upper Kohistan, told the groundbreaking ceremony of the schools held in the Seo area of
LARKANA: A five-year-old boy has died from measles in a village near Naudero, bringing the total number of measles-related deaths in the area to three within just three days. The deceased, Ali Abbas, son of Noor Muhammad Soomro, was a resident of Nau Gath on the outskirts of Naudero. The child’s death has plunged the household into deep mourning. Speaking to reporters, the bereaved father, Noor Muhammad Soomro, explained that a few days earlier,
Pakistan was ranked among the top five countries worldwide for absolute reduction in child deaths, owing to vaccination efforts, Radio Pakistan reported on April 22. In a statement issued by the World Health Organisation (WHO), Pakistan had averted 2.6 million child deaths from preventable diseases. The country had also eradicated smallpox, reduced paralytic polio cases by 99.8 per cent, and ensured neonatal tetanus-free areas for 80 per cent of its population. Since 1994, powered by
Another exam paper scandal has surfaced in Karachi in which individuals running multiple WhatsApp groups, monetising access to Matric and Intermediate papers, were arrested. Such incidents have, for the umpteenth time, exposed how examination systems in Pakistan are designed, managed, and ultimately compromised. The details matter. Organised groups were selling access to Matric and Intermediate papers through WhatsApp, reaching hundreds of students and collecting large sums. Whether the papers were genuine or, in some
The recently concluded nationwide anti-polio campaign is being called a resounding success by those directly involved in the vaccination drive. The National Emergency Operations Center reports that over 44.7 million children under five received the vaccine, a figure just shy of the 45 million target, representing over 99% coverage. A polio expert calls the result “an achievement”, noting that previous campaigns routinely missed 800,000 to 1 million children, roughly three times as many as
QUETTA: The Balochistan government on April 21 said it was making headway in education by bringing out-of-school children back into classrooms and reopening long-closed institutions. Speaking at an event at the Chief Minister’s Secretariat, Balochistan Chief Minister Mir Sarfraz Bugti, along with senior officials, shared progress on the ongoing campaign. Education Minister Rahila Hamid Durrani and Secretary Lal Jan Jaffar were also in attendance. Officials said more than 3,700 previously closed schools have been
OKARA: A woman was arrested on April 21 for allegedly strangling her seven-year-old son to death from her first husband to save her second marriage. According to the complainant, minor’s father Irfan Ali, he received a call from his former father-in-law, who told him that his son Ali Hamza was being tortured by his mother, Nadia Bibi. He claimed that her second husband did not want his son to live with them at his