Tiny school in patriarchal Peshawar goes big on life lessons
Tiny school in patriarchal Peshawar goes big on life lessons/node/1568181/pakistan
Tiny school in patriarchal Peshawar goes big on life lessons
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Students from Parha Likha Primary School’s grade two practice their lessons. October 10, 2019 (AN Photo by Saba Rehman)
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At present, more than 40 students are enrolled in the Parha Likha Primary School in Peshawar, and begin their day with an assembly every morning. October 10, 2019 (AN Photo by Saba Rehman)
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Young boys, some of them once employed as domestic workers, are now pursuing an education at the Parha Likha Primary School in Peshawar. October 10, 2019. (AN Photo by Saba Rehman)
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Children at the Parha Likha Primary School in Peshawar are rewarded for good performance during class. October 10, 2019 (AN Photo by Saba Rehman)
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Shahnaz Khan, founder of Parha Likha Primary School in Peshawar, teaches students in class. October 10, 2019. (AN Photo by Saba Rehman)
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A girl practices drawing in her notebook during class at the Parha Likha Primary School in Peshawar. October 10, 2019. (AN Photo by Saba Rehman)
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Students play a game called “walking-walking,” which encourages physical exercise, with a teacher at the Parha Likha Primary School in Peshawar. October 10, 2019. (AN Photo by Saba Rehman)
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Children show their books in class at the Parha Likha Primary School in Peshawar. October 10, 2019. (AN Photo by Saba Rehman)
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A group of girls learns how to iron clothes during class at the Parha Likha Primary School in Peshawar. October 10, 2019. (AN Photo by Saba Rehman)
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Students at the Parha Likha Primary School in Peshawar learn how to wash utensils, as well as other domestic work during a class. October 10, 2019. (AN Photo by Saba Rehman)
Tiny school in patriarchal Peshawar goes big on life lessons
Free school teaches young students domestic work irrespective of gender
Many of the students attending Parha Likha Primary school were once child labourers
Updated 13 October 2019
SABA REHMAN
PESHAWAR: In Pakistan’s northwestern city of Peshawar, where patriarchal traditions are hard to break, one school is on a mission to teach children gender equality in the household.
Apart from teaching regular subjects like math, science, Urdu and English, the Parha Likha Primary school sets itself apart by offering modules on household chores as part of its curriculum.
Learning charts hanging on the walls of a classroom at the Parha Likha Primary School in Peshawar. October 10, 2019. (AN Photo by Saba Rehman)
Children as young as four years old up to 12 years of age are taught how to mop the floors, wash dishes, iron clothes, and learn regular domestic work in the free school established by 27-year-old Shahnaz Khan.
The purpose, Khan said, is to turn them into well-rounded individuals and prepare them for life.
Children arrange their shoes in order during class at the Parha Likha Primary School in Peshawar. October 10, 2019. (AN Photo by Saba Rehman)
“In our society, only girls are supposed to do all the work at home and boys do not do any household chores because they are never trained in domestic work. So, when these boys go abroad or to a boarding life, they don’t know anything. That’s why I took this initiative,” Khan told Arab News.
Shahnaz Khan, founder of Parha Likha Primary School in Peshawar, teaches students in class. October 10, 2019. (AN Photo by Saba Rehman)
Her journey began from a personal level, because she had to fight her way through the patriarchy, one new decision at a time, Khan said.
“I belong to a family where educating girls was considered a bad thing. I am the first girl in my entire family who did her masters from a university. There were many hurdles in the way of my own education. I did my bachelors privately at home,” she said.
Children show their books in class at the Parha Likha Primary School in Peshawar. October 10, 2019. (AN Photo by Saba Rehman)
A majority of the children who attend Khan’s school, which now enrols 40 students, belong to families where both parents are daily wage laborers, or where the children themselves were once employed.
Talha, a student of grade two and a former child laborer, is one such example.
Parha Likha Primary School teaches children for free in Peshawar. It includes children of daily wage earners and laborers who can’t afford to send their children to private or public schools. October 10, 2019 (AN Photo by Saba Rehman)
“Before coming here, I was studying in a private school after which I would work in a house where I did domestic work. My parents could not afford my school expenses so I dropped out,” he told Arab News.
Now, Talha studies in Khan’s school free of cost, and is getting practical life skills in the process.
Robina, another former child laborer, said she was given a second chance at creating a better future for herself.
“My mother works in a factory and she can’t afford my school expenses. Here, I can continue my studies,” she said.
ISLAMABAD: Saudi Arabia’s King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center (KSrelief) performed over 4,484 successful eye surgeries across Pakistan under a voluntary program to provide free medical services to the underprivileged, state-run media reported this week.
The state-run Pakistan Television (PTV) reported on Thursday that KSrelief successfully concluded 11 comprehensive eye treatment camps in Pakistan under the “Noor Saudi Volunteer Program 2025.” These camps, PTV said, were organized in collaboration with the Al-Basar International Foundation and Ibrahim Eye Hospital Karachi.
The camps were held to provide free medical services to underprivileged individuals suffering from blindness or other eye-related ailments, it added. These camps were organized in both the urban and rural areas of Pakistan’s Sindh, Balochistan, Punjab, and Azad Jammu and Kashmir regions where access to quality eye care services remains limited, PTV said.
“During the campaign, medical teams examined a total of 43,294 patients and performed over 4,484 successful surgeries,” the state television said. “Additionally, 11,050 eyeglasses were distributed free of charge, along with the provision of prescribed medications to deserving patients.”
It said these camps were conducted in various Pakistani cities such as Karachi, Matli, Kandhkot, Shikarpur, Hyderabad, Naseerabad, Kharan, Khuzdar, Jhelum and Rawalakot. The camps enabled thousands of patients to benefit from specialized eye treatments due to which many were able to regain their vision.
“This initiative reflects the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s strong humanitarian commitment and its dedication to enhancing the lives of people affected by visual impairments,” PTV said.
KSrelief has implemented hundreds of projects in Pakistan worth millions of dollars to improve the lives of vulnerable communities. Efforts include emergency relief for natural disasters, and long-term projects addressing food security, health care, education, and shelter.
The Saudi charity organization has one of the largest humanitarian budgets available to any aid agency across the world, which has allowed its officials to undertake a wide variety of projects in more than 80 countries. Pakistan is the fifth largest beneficiary of its aid and humanitarian activities and has greatly benefited from its assistance since the 2022 monsoon floods.
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s defense minister has described the country’s governance as a “hybrid model” in which military and civilian leaders share power — an open secret in political circles but a rare public admission by a serving official that has taken on added significance amid the army chief’s solo visit to the United States and an unprecedented meeting with President Donald Trump.
Officials have presented Field Marshal Asim Munir’s trip as an effort to bolster security ties with Washington, particularly in light of last month’s military standoff with India and escalating hostilities in the Middle East. But the army chief’s meeting with Trump — without Pakistan’s prime minister or foreign minister present — has also drawn renewed attention to how much Islamabad relies on its army to handle high-stakes foreign relations, economic ties and sensitive regional issues.
The chief’s visit comes on the heels of the most serious clash in years between nuclear-armed Pakistan and India in which they exchanged drone, missile and artillery fire until a ceasefire brokered by Washington on May 10 brought an end to hostilities. Pakistan has declared victory in the confrontation, saying it downed six Indian fighter jets and struck military facilities. Munir’s leadership during the crisis has won him a rare promotion to field marshal and broad public support, reinforcing the military’s standing as one of the country’s most influential institutions despite past criticism of its outsized role in politics.
In an interview this week conducted as the army chief visited the United States for talks with Trump, Defense Minister Khawaja Asif acknowledged that the military’s prestige had “skyrocketed” after the conflict with India, calling it a “blessing in disguise,” but rejected that this would erode democratic authority or give the army unchecked control.
“No, it doesn’t worry me,” he told Arab News when asked if Pakistan’s history of direct and indirect military rule made him uneasy about the army’s stronger image.
“This is a hybrid model. It’s not an ideal democratic government … So, this arrangement, the hybrid arrangement, I think [it] is doing wonders,” Asif said, adding that the system was a practical necessity until Pakistan was “out of the woods as far as economic and governance problems are concerned.”
Commuters ride past a billboard with portraits of Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif (2L), Navy Chief Admiral Naveed Ashraf (3L), Chief of Army Staff General Syed Asim Munir (C), Air Chief Marshal Zaheer Ahmad Baber (3R) and Chief Minister of the country's Punjab province Maryam Nawaz Sharif (2R), displayed along a street in Lahore on May 24, 2025. (AFP)
The long-running political instability and behind-the-scenes military influence in earlier decades had slowed democratic development, the defense chief argued, but the current arrangement had improved coordination.
Pakistan’s military has played a central role in national affairs since independence in 1947, including periods of direct rule after coups in 1958, 1977 and 1999, when General Pervez Musharraf toppled then-Prime Minister
Nawaz Sharif is the elder brother of current Prime Minister, Shehbaz Sharif. Musharraf ruled until 2008 when elections restored civilian governance. Even under elected governments, however, the army is widely considered the invisible guiding hand in politics and in shaping foreign policy, security strategy, and often key aspects of governance.
“If this sort of [hybrid] model was adopted way back in the 90s, things would have been much, much better,” Asif said, “because the confrontation between [military] establishment and the political government, it actually retarded the progress of our democracy.”
By contrast, he said, the current “de facto” hybrid arrangement had brought the army and elected leaders together on joint forums such as the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC), a civil-military body tasked with setting and managing economic priorities jointly and overseeing big-ticket investments and trade reforms.
“We have common platforms, like SIFC and other platforms, where military leadership and civilian leadership, they sit together and decide about the business,” Asif said. “So, this is something which is a de facto arrangement and it’s working very well.”
The military’s media wing did not respond to a request for comments.
“TOTAL AGREEMENT”
Asif’s remarks about power-sharing with the army on an ever-expanding policy portfolio appear particularly relevant after Munir’s rare White House meeting with Trump on Wednesday, the first time in years that a Pakistani army chief was received by a sitting US president without civilian leadership present.
Munir was accompanied by National Security Adviser Lt Gen Muhammad Asim Malik, Pakistan’s serving intelligence chief who now also holds the national security portfolio. This too is a first for the country: that a sitting ISI director general is serving as NSA.
According to a statement from ISPR, the military’s public relations wing, the Munir-Trump meeting lasted two hours instead of the scheduled one, and covered not only security cooperation and the ongoing Israel-Iran conflict but also wider collaboration in “trade, economic development, mines and minerals, artificial intelligence, energy, cryptocurrency, and emerging technologies.”
These are areas traditionally handled by civilian ministries.
While independent analysts say this reflects the military’s increasingly visible role in economic and financial initiatives and could permanently weaken civilian supremacy in these domains, Asif insisted PM Sharif remained firmly in charge of key decisions:
“It’s something mutual, we have a co-ownership of the power structure …
“There is no superimposed system or superimposed organization on Shehbaz Sharif which dictates him and he acts accordingly … [He] is making his decisions independently and obviously he is in regular consultation with the establishment on all levels.”
But were there “crisis moments” in the relationships when the prime minister had not prevailed over the army chief in decision-making?
Asif responded:
“Believe me, very honestly, we haven’t had any moment where decisions were not made unanimously with total agreement. Things are moving very smoothly. And god willing, one day we will achieve the sort of democracy which is needed by our country.”
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Meteorological Department (PMD) has forecast pre-monsoon rains across various parts of the country from today, Friday, warning of possible urban flooding and infrastructure damage in several regions.
The alert comes as Pakistan braces for another season of extreme weather, following deadly heatwaves and catastrophic floods in recent years.
Ranked among the ten most climate-vulnerable countries in the world, Pakistan is ramping up preparedness efforts, especially in Punjab, where authorities expect significantly above-average rainfall this monsoon.
“Pre-monsoon rains are predicted in the country from June 20-23 with occasional gaps,” the PMD said in its advisory issued on Thursday. “Moist currents from Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea are penetrating upper and central parts of the country and a westerly wave is also likely to approach upper parts on June 20.”
The department said dust storms, rain with wind and thundershowers, including isolated heavy rainfall and hailstorms, were expected in parts of Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan and numerous districts of Punjab and northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Affected areas include Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore, Faisalabad, Peshawar, Mardan, Swat, Chitral, Abbottabad and Waziristan among others.
Similar conditions were also forecast for Sukkur, Larkana, Dadu, and Jacobabad in Sindh province from June 22 to 24.
PMD cautioned that such weather could damage loose infrastructure such as electric poles, trees, vehicles and solar panels, particularly in upper and central regions including Islamabad.
It added that intense heat was expected to ease gradually over the forecast period, advising farmers to plan agricultural activities accordingly.
PMD also warned urban flooding could occur in Lahore, Gujranwala and the Islamabad-Rawalpindi region.
Authorities have urged the public, travelers and tourists to exercise caution.
ABOVE-NORMAL RAINFALL
Meanwhile, the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) of Punjab said on Thursday the province was likely to experience 25 percent more rainfall this monsoon season, with northeastern districts expected to receive 40 percent to 60 percent above-normal rainfall.
“This projection necessitates proactive and coordinated efforts to mitigate risks associated with urban and riverine flooding,” the authority said, adding that all necessary arrangements had been completed to respond to any emergencies.
The provincial government has begun distributing pamphlets to raise public awareness about the dangers of floods, heavy rains and strong winds.
Pakistan experienced devastating floods in 2022 that left more than 1,700 people dead and displaced over 33 million across the country.
Experts described the disaster as a consequence of climate change, after floodwaters destroyed homes, farmland, and public infrastructure, causing financial losses exceeding $35 billion.
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has recorded a 99% decline in polio cases, Health Minister Syed Mustafa Kamal told the Gavi board meeting on Thursday, calling for more investments to "train and retain" vaccinators.
The global vaccine organization Gavi helps low-income countries buy vaccines to protect against killer diseases. Around one billion children have been immunized as a result of Gavi’s work across the world since 2000.
Polio is a paralyzing disease with no cure, making prevention through vaccination critical. Multiple doses of the oral polio vaccine, along with the completion of the routine immunization schedule for all children, are essential to build strong immunity against the virus.
According to Pakistan’s polio program, 10 cases have been confirmed so far this year, with 74 reported in 2024.
Environmental surveillance carried out earlier this year has detected the virus in 272 sewage samples collected from 127 testing sites across 68 districts, indicating ongoing transmission.
"Pakistan has witnessed over a 99% decline in polio cases — a testament to our coordinated strategy, dedication of frontline workers and the collective efforts of all stakeholders," the health ministry quoted Kamal as saying following a virtual joint session of Gavi and Pakistan's Polio Oversight Board.
However, the statement did not specify the starting point for this decline.
"Strengthening the integrated immunization system requires continued support from both Gavi and the Polio Oversight Board,” he added. “We need additional investments to ensure the training and retention of vaccinators."
He called for implementing a joint strategy to reach zero-dose children and mobilizing biker teams to access far-flung areas.
The health minister said "coordinated microplanning and effective monitoring" between polio and the Expanded Program on Immunization was improving immunization coverage and delivering results.
Kamal said polio eradication remained the government's top priority, highlighting how Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif personally oversees the eradication efforts.
Pakistan, one of the last two countries where polio remains endemic, has made significant progress in curbing the virus, with annual cases dropping from around 20,000 in the early 1990s to just eight in 2018.
The country reported six cases in 2023 and only one in 2021.
Pakistan launched its polio eradication program in 1994, but efforts have repeatedly been hindered by widespread vaccine misinformation and resistance from hardline religious groups who claim immunization campaigns are a Western conspiracy to sterilize Muslim children or a front for espionage.
Militant groups have also targeted polio workers and their security escorts, often with deadly attacks that have hampered vaccination drives, particularly in the country’s remote and conflict-prone regions.
Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan are the only two countries in the world where the poliovirus remains endemic.
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar will attend a meeting of foreign ministers from the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Istanbul this weekend and call for an immediate Israel-Iran ceasefire to help restore peace in the Middle East, the foreign office said on Thursday.
The 51st session of the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers is expected to focus on coordinated efforts to de-escalate tensions between the two regional rivals, along with the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
The meeting comes at a time of heightened volatility for the bloc, following Pakistan’s brief but intense military standoff with India last month and Iran’s escalating confrontation with Israel amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza.
"During the plenary session, the DPM/FM will share Pakistan’s perspective on the developments in South Asia following the ceasefire arrangement between Pakistan and India and the situation in the Middle East after Israel’s recent aggression against Iran and other regional states," the foreign office spokesperson, Shafqat Ali Khan, said in a statement.
He added that Dar would advocate for peace in the Middle East and highlight the need for humanitarian assistance to the people of Gaza during the meeting on June 21 and 22.
Beyond the Middle East, Dar is also expected to address broader issues of concern to the Muslim world, urging the international community to "combat the escalating tide of Islamophobia" by addressing rising extremism and militancy, as well as the growing threat of climate change.
He will also reaffirm Pakistan's commitment to the principles and objectives of the OIC in addressing challenges faced by Muslim nations globally.
Dar, who also holds the portfolio of foreign minister, is scheduled to hold bilateral meetings with his counterparts from other OIC member states on the sidelines of the conference.
According to the foreign office, he will participate in an award ceremony honoring Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan with the “OIC Youth Forum Grand Youth Award.”
The high-level meeting is taking place amid media reports that the United States is weighing options, including potentially joining Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear sites.
Iran launched retaliatory missile attacks last week after Israeli forces bombed sites linked to its nuclear and military infrastructure on June 13.
Tehran says more than 224 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in the strikes. Israel has also reported over two dozen civilian deaths.