The Rawalpindi Police on 3rd September said they had arrested the principal of a private academy over the alleged rape and forced abortion of a Grade 10 student. The student, a resident of Khayaban-i-Sir Syed of Rawalpindi’s Pirwadhai town, had lodged a first information report (FIR) with the police on Monday under Sections 338A (punishment for Isqat-i-haml) and 376i (punishment for rape) of the Pakistan Penal Code, alleging that her academy’s principal raped her multiple
Child Rights in Focus
ISLAMABAD: Public health authorities have sounded the alarm over a looming wave of epidemics in flood-hit districts, warning that stagnant water, contaminated supplies and overcrowded relief camps are creating the perfect storm for disease outbreaks. Officials from the Ministry of National Health Services, Regulation and Coordination (NHSR&C) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Islamabad have issued urgent advisories to prevent what they described as “an epidemic within a disaster” following the World Health
PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Food Safety and Halal Food Authority on Tuesday carried out a major operation near Javed Town on Peshawar Ring Road in the provincial capital and seized a large cache of expired and hazardous food items. According to the authority’s spokesperson, more than 2,000 cartons of expired branded noodles and over 3,000 kilograms of expired candies, chips, biscuits and juices were recovered during the raid. In addition, harmful substances, including artificial
The first meeting of the 11th National Finance Commission (NFC) to discuss and finalise a new award was postponed last week due to flood emergency in the country, which demanded urgent government attention and resource mobilisation to mitigate potential human and material losses. Background research, however, revealed that, compared to the federation, the provinces were entering the NFC parleys relatively underprepared. While the federal Ministry of Finance reportedly built its case on systematic studies
RAWALPINDI: The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) on the evening of August 31 launched a report highlighting the necessity to enforce Article 9A of the Constitution to provide citizens with their right to clean air, safe drinking water, waste management, disaster preparedness and access to environmental justice. The Constitution guarantees the fundamental right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment under Article 9A. Yet this vital right has remained absent from public debate, even
RAWALPINDI: The City Traffic (CTP) Rawalpindi has chalked out a plan to maintain traffic flow by deploying additional police personnel on busy highways and outside schools and colleges in view of the resumption of educational activities in the district. According to a spokesperson for the CTP, as part of the plan, extra personnel and forklifts will also be deployed to curb illegal parking. He said CTO Rawalpindi Farhan Aslam had issued directives to provide
Antibiotics are among humanity’s most remarkable discoveries, emerging unexpectedly over the past century. The credit for this groundbreaking development goes to the Scottish physician and microbiologist, Alexander Fleming, who was studying fungi in 1928 when he inadvertently discovered what we now know as antibiotics. Following the discovery of penicillin, the first antibiotic, a continuous cycle of antibiotic discoveries began, which is still ongoing. One might ask what antibiotics are. Antibiotics are powerful medicines used
PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, under the Good Governance Roadmap, has unveiled a set of reforms aimed at transforming the healthcare system in the province. The reforms are directed at strengthening primary and secondary care, workforce development, digitization, and institutional restructuring. The Health Department announced that the roadmap, endorsed at the chief secretary’s office, would ensure equitable, efficient, and accountable service delivery across more than 2,500 health facilities, catering to a population of over
MANSEHRA: An eleven-year-old boy, a primary school student, succumbed to dengue fever in Oghi tehsil, raising the death toll from the mosquito-borne virus to two. The family of Mohammad Saad told reporters in Oghi that he was shifted to a nearby health facility with dengue symptoms but couldn’t survive, triggering fear among locals. A man had also died of dengue fever in Oghi earlier this month. “A large number of patients with dengue symptoms
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is set to launch its first-ever national HPV vaccination campaign from September 15 to 27. This historic initiative aims to prevent cervical cancer—the second most common cancer among women in the country. The campaign will target around 13 million girls, aged 9 to 14, across Punjab, Sindh, Islamabad, and Azad Jammu & Kashmir. A single-dose vaccine will be administered, which provides lifelong protection. The DOPASI Foundation, in partnership with FDI and with
LAHORE: Public and private schools across Punjab are set to reopen on Monday (1st Sep), following the annual summer vacation. However, in areas affected by flooding or where schools are being used as relief camps, local authorities may delay reopening to ensure safety. Following the recent notification from the School Education Department (SED) Punjab, Deputy Commissioners across the province have been authorised to announce school closures in areas affected by flooding. Acting on this
Policymakers in Pakistan appear to be in a deep slumber, unmoved by one of the most pressing human rights crises festering within the country. A new study launched last week by the National Commission for Human Rights (NCHR), titled ‘Unveiling Exploitation and Abuse in the Brick Kilns of Punjab’, lays bare the harrowing reality of bonded labour. It details how thousands of workers, including entire families, remain trapped in modern-day slavery. Yet the state’s