Barbaric Killing Of Teenager Unfolds

Your browser may not support display of this image.KARACHI, Oct 27: Parents of 18-year-old Tasleem Solangi, who was killed in an extremely inhumane manner allegedly by some elders of her tribe, have appealed to President and Sindh Chief Minister to provide them protection as “killers are still at large and have not been arrested because of their connections with police”.

Tasleem’s mother said at the Karachi Press Club that her daughter was first thrown before hungry dogs and when she was mauled by them and in the jaws of death, she was riddled with bullets. The act was staged before the girl’s father who was specifically brought from a house where he had been under detention for about a year. 

 

Too Early To Tie The Knot

KARACHI November 1: Two confused children, seven-year old Waseem and his four-year old cousin have been sitting in the same room since Thursday night, guarded by policemen. Their hands are brightly decorated with Henna, but their eyes are full of tears. The police have kept them in the room and not allowed them to play. 
 
Merely hours before they were brought in, Waseem and Nisha were wedded by their parents. The Nazimabad police took into custody the two children, and arrested their fathers and Nikah Khawan Qari Gul Hasaan, who conducted the wedding ceremony.  

 

School Administration Faces Death Threats Over ‘Blasphemy’

LAHORE, November 2: A large police contingent guards a Walton Road private school that was closed down several days ago following threats from locals who accuse the administration of blasphemy.  

Books printed by the school for classes V and VI included a lesson titled Hero/Role Model, listing six names: the Holy Prophet (pbuh), Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Fatima Jinnah, Abdul Sattar Edhi and Qurban Ali the patron of the school trust – resulting in allegations of blasphemy and threats of murder. A mob led by clerics gathered outside the school shouting slogans calling for the murder of school officials. The school’s 4,000 students had to be evacuated from the campus.

 

Death Penalty Review Bill This Month: Naik

LAHORE, November 2: The Ministry of Law is planning to review various laws under which capital punishment is awarded in the country, Federal Law Minister Farooq Naik said on Saturday.  

The government had decided to review the laws as part of the move to abolish death penalty in the country. Naik said that the review bill would be ready by the middle of November and parliament would pass it by the end of the current month 

 

Children’s Plight

 
ISLAMABAD: Oct 22: For decades we have ignored the plight of this country’s children who continue to be victims of poverty, exploitation and violence in all its manifestations. In fact, such has been the disinterest in their lot that the government has not been able to make up its mind about the age marking the end of childhood. As pointed out by the Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (SPARC), an applicant for the national identity card must be 18 years or older while according to the Employment of Children Act, a child is one who is under 14 years of age. Meanwhile, Pakistan ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child which stipulates that a child is anyone under 18. Without clear thinking on the issue, how can Pakistan hope to legislate and implement reform — in this case the Child Protection Bill that has been pending since 2006 — aimed at protecting children and their rights? 

 

Number of Polio Cases Reported Rises to 81  
 
ISLAMABAD: Oct 18:
The fresh polio cases take the number of children incapacitated by the disease so far this year to 81. In the past, most of the polio cases would surface from the NWFP and the FATA due to ineffective immunization campaigns, or no immunization at all. However, now the trend seems to be changing gradually as more polio cases are reported from the Punjab than other provinces.

Four fresh polio cases have been reported from Punjab and NWFP when the much-publicized anti-polio campaign of the government concluded. Three of the four polio victims are from Bahawalpur, Kasur and Okara districts of the Punjab and one from the NWFP. 
Despite being administered more than seven oral polio vaccine (OPV) doses, polio symptoms were observed in four children with ages ranging between one to two years.

 

 

Cabinet Panel Suggests Drastic Changes in FCR

ISLAMABAD: Oct 14: The Cabinet committee has recommended drastic changes in the Frontier Crimes Regulations (FCR), including allowing the right of appeal against actions of political agents or district coordination officers in some tribal regions. A meeting of the committee, presided over by Law Minister finalized its recommendations for submission to the prime minister. 

The FCR, in force in seven federally administered tribal agencies and six frontier regions, basically deals with procedure for settling inter-tribal matters. Instead of its abolition as was hinted by the prime minister in his first speech in the National Assembly, the government would amend some draconian provisions of the FCR, a legal expert observed.  

 

Toxic Milk Kills Four Babies, 53,000 Hospitalized

September 20: China’s tainted milk scandal spiraled into uncharted territory with the government announcing that up to 53,000 children were taken to hospitals after drinking milk thought to have been contaminated by the industrial chemical melamine. Four infants have died in the scandal, which prompted countries to ban or limit Chinese dairy imports. Most had “basically recovered” after developing kidney stones, the main symptom of drinking the tainted milk, but 12,892 of them remained in hospital, a health ministry official said.


 

Militants Cause Gastroenteritis in Swat Valley

SWAT: 15 Oct: Militants blow up a an electricity sub-station, causing tube wells and the water supply to be disrupted; people resort to using dirty water and then fall sick. This, in a nutshell, is what has happened in parts of Swat Valley in North West Frontier Province. Thousands have descended on Saidu Teaching Hospital (STH) in Swat District complaining of diarrhoea, stomach ache and vomiting over the past few weeks.

Over 2,000 have visited the hospital since 2 October, amid rumours that cholera had erupted in Saidu Sharif, capital of Swat District, about 3km from the city of Mingora, where the grid station was blown up by militants.
Swat Valley has been no stranger to militants, arson attacks and indefinite curfews in the past year, say local residents and observers. (IRIN)


 
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Corporal Punishment
   
 

Physical Injuries:

There is no standard in meting out physical punishment to children. Whether mild, moderate, or severe, all forms of corporal punishment are disallowed. Many a times, children suffer from major injuries, which require medical attention and treatment. The tools that adults’ employ like steel rods, sticks, belts etc., in punishing the child, leaves him or her moaning in pain and blood trickling profusely from injured parts. Moreover, many children have lost their lives in battling the pain inflicted by such punishments. Others have been left physically impaired.

In Pakistan, the situation is alarming. Children and women are indiscriminately tortured and physically injured with ease. Categorized as a personal and domestic matter, they are not taken to hospitals for proper treatment and when the situation grows worse then only are they commuted to nearby medical centers to provide medical help. This further exacerbates the physical pain and recovery of the injured.

According to a study covering parents and teachers at 600 primary schools in the Frontier Province in 1998, 70 reports of serious injury arising from corporal punishment was recorded. A child recently died in Chakwal after he was beaten by his school teacher.

Psychological injuries:

Corporal punishment may appear to have short-term advantages in the sense that adults can secure immediate compliance but the long-term effects are precarious to the development of the child. Research findings have pointed out the correlation between corporal punishment and depression, low self-esteem, lack of confidence and deteriorating relationships with parents, teachers and adults. Many adults who have been physically punished as children may say in defense that they did not develop any psychological trauma or problems as such. However, the fact that the child cannot retaliate likewise, the anger and frustration is harbored and there are several ways in which the victimized child unleashes his resentment of the adult-act. Bullying peers, depression, anxiety, low self esteem, impatience, anti-social behavior, aggressiveness etc., in a child, all in one way or the other is linked to corporal punishment.

Teachers who punish children publicly before the rest of the class also become the target of other children, which in turn further aggravates the child’s negative psychological effects and social behavior.

Damage to children’s education:

Corporal punishment in schools is often associated with wider fundamental problems in the education system. In majority of the schools in the rural as well as in the urban areas, children are indiscriminately exposed to physical punishment in the name of discipline. The teacher does not sense a feeling of remorse or guilt because it is so deeply rooted in the culture of rearing a child in our society that even in case of extreme brutality reported, higher authorities fail to take concrete action. Most parents also support and reinforce teachers’ actions to correct children behavior.

Corporal punishment is also cited as one of the major reasons for the high drop out rate. In Pakistan, a survey was conducted in 1999 and it was found that 15% of students between the ages of 10-18 who have ever attended primary schools have dropped out. Corporal punishment was cited to be the most common reason for students to drop out from school.

Punishing children before peers, teachers and others leaves the child, humiliated, abashed and helpless. Moreover, children expressed that they were less noisy and more obedient in those classes where the teacher was more loving and did not resort to physical punishment than those teachers who did. Teachers, who pose to be strict and for this purpose take refuge of the stick to discipline children, are harming the development of the child. Such children are not encouraged to think for themselves and ask questions. They are simply passive recipients of knowledge and are forced to conform to whatever the teacher tells them to do. Thus, children’s creative skills are suppressed and their ability to explore dies out.

Sending out the wrong message:

The strongest, but unintentional, message that corporal punishment sends out is that it is all right for a stronger person to coerce a weaker person. The child grows to think that violence is acceptable behavior in settling conflicts and disputes. Thus, corporal punishment generates a cycle of violence. The child grows to accept that corporal punishment is a normal affair in the upbringing of children and there is no better way of disciplining children.

   
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