A few days ago, I watched a boy no older than 10 or 12 dragging a sack of garbage larger than his own body. He was doing what thousands of children across Pakistan do every day, collecting recyclable waste to earn a living. Suddenly, several street dogs began
35-year-old Gul Rukh Bibi still remembers the silence that followed the birth of her eighth child: there were no congratulations, no whispered prayers, no relatives arriving with sweets. Only the quiet certainty that her life was about to change. Her husband had warned her months earlier that another
On the global stage, human statues are performance artists who usually stand motionless at city centres for purposes of arts and entertainment. But this trend, cloaked under the guise of street performance, has been exported to Pakistan and particularly Karachi in borderline abusive conditions. At various junctions across
Pakistan has experienced rapid growth in internet access, smartphone usage, and engagement on digital platforms. While this expansion has created new opportunities for communication, employment, and civic participation, it has also been accompanied by a marked rise in online threats, harassment, and technology-facilitated offences. The increasing number of
RABIES has consistently emerged as a lethal yet overlooked health concern. Reportedly, the scourge took 22 lives in Sindh this year. Figures from three tertiary care hospitals in Karachi reveal an alarming spike in dog-bite incidents, taking the year’s reported tally to over 42,000 cases. The Indus Hospital
EVERY announcement of a vaccination campaign reflects Pakistan’s recognition of the polio problem and a resolve to defeat the crippling virus. Health Minister Mustafa Kamal has launched the final nationwide polio drive of 2025 with the goal to immunise over 45m children. The minister said that the number
There is something deeply tragic about how the world of numbers works. On paper, cutting off international aid to stimulate the local economy seems a plausible measure. But, in reality, the effects of such cuts are devastating and almost irreversible. At a time when the world should be
THE lidless manholes in Karachi lay bare the failure of the city administration to provide even the bare necessities of daily living to residents. This week, a regular shopping trip left another family scarred for life. A manhole near Nipa in Gulshan-i-Iqbal swallowed their toddler, Ibrahim; his body
Every morning, millions of children walk into schools across Pakistan with hopes, dreams and a desire to learn. Yet, behind these school walls, many face risks that threaten not only their education but their safety, dignity, and emotional well-being. Safeguarding our children in educational institutions is no longer
EACH year, World AIDS Day arrives with new statistics but an old question: why is HIV/AIDS still a critical problem? Despite decades of interventions, glaring inequalities and complacency remain the primary reasons for the elevated numbers. UNAIDS says 40.8m people are living with HIV globally, 9.2m are not
This year on Universal Children’s Day, as Pakistan prepares for its 2025 review by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, I’m forced to reflect on a 35-year-old promise. In 1990, Pakistan was one of the six initiators of the World Summit for Children, a champion
THE rising abuse of an anticonvulsant medication in the market is destroying the lives of the country’s youth. The drug, whose generic name is pregabalin and which is available under different brand names, decreases the number of pain signals that are sent out by damaged nerves in the