• Declares immunisation gap a national public health emergency • Blames governance failures, corruption, weak immunisation system • Calls for an immediate audit of provincial health funds KARACHI: The Pakistan Medical Association has issued an urgent national red alert after clinical and epidemiological data revealed that Pakistan holds a catastrophically high volume of “zero-dose” children in the World Health Organisation’s Eastern Mediterranean Region. Zero-dose children are those who have not received the first dose
Child Rights in Focus
Pakistan is a signatory to the UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4, which calls for inclusive and equitable quality education for all by 2030. Unfortunately, the country remains far from achieving this target. According to media reports, the national literacy rate has reached 63%, with male literacy at 73% and female literacy at 54%. Sadly, around 26 million children are currently out of school, with girls accounting for 13.7 million of them. This disparity
BAHAWALNAGAR: A son of former divisional leader of a religious party was booked for sexually assaulting a girl student for two years inside the seminary and administering various medications to prevent pregnancy. The first information report registered on the complaint of the victim’s mother of Roopeywala village with Minchinabad Police, stated that 15-year-old ‘A’ had been residing at the Jamia Anwar-i-Ghausia seminary for the past four years to receive religious education from cleric ‘F’,
KARACHI: The prime suspect in the rape and murder of a six-year-old boy confessed before a judicial magistrate on July 14 to raping and murdering the boy and then throwing his body from the third floor into an empty plot. The investigating officer (IO), Sajid, produced the prime suspect along with his accomplices, including his father, uncle and teenage brother, before the court after completing their first physical remand. The IO moved an application
ISLAMABAD: A mounting childhood immunisation crisis is unfolding in Pakistan, which recorded the highest number of zero-dose children in the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region in 2025. According to WHO and UNICEF estimates, 651,000 infants received no routine vaccinations, while another 465,000 failed to complete basic immunisation. The latest WHO/UNICEF Estimates of National Immunisation Coverage (WUENIC) place Pakistan at the top of the regional ranking for zero-dose children, ahead of Afghanistan with 503,000, Yemen with
LAHORE: A resolution has been submitted to the Punjab Assembly, seeking a nationwide ban on social media accounts for children under the age of 16 without parental consent, amid growing concerns over cyberbullying, online sexual abuse and digital addiction among the minors. The resolution, moved by Punjab lawmaker Sarah Ahmad, urges the provincial government to recommend to the federal government to introduce comprehensive legislation to regulate children’s access to social media platforms and strengthen
Islamabad: The Islamabad Police have arrested a habitual offender accused of sexually harassing children across Islamabad and Rawalpindi since 2019. The suspect, identified as Mansoor, was apprehended by the Ramna Police Station in G-11/4 following complaints from local residents regarding the harassment of young boys and girls. Upon his arrest, authorities also recovered an illegal firearm from his possession, leading to a separate case being registered against him under relevant arms laws. A special
BAHAWALPUR: Lodhran district police on July 13 booked six persons in two separate cases — one pertaining to alleged rape of a minor girl and the other of a rape attempt on a boy. In the first case, Lodhran police claimed to have arrested a suspect, Q, who allegedly raped a two-and-a-half-year-old girl at Mauza Wahi Salamat Rai. According to police sources, complainant ‘F’ alleged that his minor daughter ‘S’ was playing in the
Every generation faces a defining challenge. For our parents, it was nation-building. For ours, it may well be saving our children from the growing menace of drugs. Across Pakistan, a silent epidemic is unfolding. Narcotics have found their way into our schools, colleges and universities, threatening not only individual lives but the future productivity, stability and moral fabric of our nation. Every student lost to addiction represents a broken family, a shattered dream and
KARACHI: Despite having more than 53,000 public and private educational institutions, Sindh still has nearly 7.6 million children out of school, a senior education official said while describing the situation as one of the country’s most pressing educational challenges. The figures were shared by Dr Aftab Ahmed Sheikh, Director of the Sindh Education Policy Commission, School Education and Literacy Department, Government of Sindh, while addressing the First International Scholars Conference on “Digital Society and
CHAKWAL: The case of the death of nine-year-old Australian national Hania Ahmed took a new turn when her father, Adil Ahmed, submitted an application to the District Police Officer (DPO), Chakwal, alleging that the incident was misrepresented during the initial investigation and that the FIR was registered contrary to the facts. In the application, a copy of which is available with The Express Tribune, Adil Ahmed stated that the alleged robbers did not open
Sindh’s Directorate of Private Schools has launched an awareness campaign urging parents, teachers and communities to reject corporal punishment and adopt positive discipline, saying violence against children is abuse rather than a legitimate form of discipline. The campaign, launched by Additional Director of Private Schools Rafia Malla, aims to promote child protection and encourage safe, supportive learning environments. “Corporal punishment is not discipline; it is abuse,” Malla said, adding that physical punishment can leave