Urgent Need for a Hospital and Ambulance Service in Shapuk, District Kech

Migraine is a serious neurological condition that is often described as a severe headache affecting one side of the head. The pain can begin suddenly and become so intense that it is difficult to work, study or carry out daily activities. Doctors say the pain usually starts on one side of the head and may spread behind one eye or to the other side. During a migraine attack bright lights loud noises and strong smells can make the pain worse. Many people prefer to rest in a quiet dark room until the attack passes. Migraine is often accompanied by other symptoms such as nausea the feeling of vomiting tiredness and weakness. Experts explain that migraines are linked to unusual brain sensitivity.  If migraine attacks happen often or start affecting your daily life you should see a doctor instead of ignoring them. People with chronic migraine may experience attacks on many days each month. Research suggests that about 15% of people worldwide have migraines and around one in two people experience severe headaches at some point in their lives. Common migraine triggers include stress poor eyesight bright lights loud noise smoke strong perfumes lack of sleep, dehydration skipping meals too much caffeine hormonal changes and eating large amounts of sugary or ultra processed foods. Doctors say medicines made specifically for migraines are usually more effective because they target certain serotonin receptors in the brain to help reduce pain. These medicines should only be taken under a doctor’s advice. Common painkillers such as paracetamol or aspirin may provide temporary relief but they do not treat chronic migraine. Symptoms like nausea sensitivity to light tiredness and weakness may continue. If migraines keep coming back it is important to get a proper medical evaluation and the right treatment instead of relying on self-medication.

EVERY year, hundreds of fresh law graduates walk into Pakistan’s leading chambers and firms for what is euphemistically called an “internship” or “pupillage.” Most will not be paid a rupee for months, sometimes years, of full-time work drafting pleadings, researching case law and sitting in on client meetings. Some will eventually be “made permanent” on a modest salary; many others will simply be replaced by the next batch of eager graduates willing to work for free. This arrangement is so normalized within the legal fraternity that it is rarely discussed as a labor rights issue at all. It is treated, instead, as an inevitable rite of passage the price of admission into a prestigious profession. Yet a closer look suggests that Pakistan’s legal industry may be one of the starkest examples of unregulated, exploitative internship practice in the country, and one uniquely ill-placed to defend it, given that the profession exists to interpret and enforce the very laws it is quietly sidestepping. The scale of the problem has been documented, if informally. Lawyers who have surveyed the profession describe junior associates at reputed firms completing unpaid stints stretching from three months to two years, often working full days while technically still “training.” The practice persists despite Pakistan’s Apprenticeship Ordinance, 1962, which was designed precisely to regulate structured on-the-job training and guarantee apprentices certain minimum protections. Law firms and chambers, however, rarely register their interns as apprentices under this law, leaving them in a legal no-man’s-land: neither students, nor employees, nor apprentices in the statutory sense. This gap is compounded by the profession’s own regulator. The Pakistan Bar Council and provincial bar councils set the rules for enrolment, requiring aspiring advocates to complete a period of pupillage under a senior lawyer before they can be licensed. But neither the Legal Practitioners and Bar Councils Act, 1973, nor the rules made under it, mandate that this pupillage be paid. In effect, the very body responsible for admitting new lawyers to practice has built an unpaid apprenticeship requirement into the licensing process itself a far cry from professions such as medicine, where house officers, despite their own well-documented grievances, at least draw a government stipend during mandatory training. The consequences fall unevenly. A law graduate from a well-off Lahore or Karachi household, who can rely on family support for rent and daily expenses, can afford to spend two years being trained for free at a top-tier firm. A graduate from Multan or Turbat, or from a household with no such cushion, effectively cannot. Since access to the most prestigious firms is widely understood to run through personal connections and informal referrals rather than open, merit-based recruitment, the unpaid pupillage system quietly filters out precisely those graduates for whom a legal career could be most transformative. What is marketed as a meritocratic apprenticeship is, in practice, a wealth test dressed up as professional training. Female interns face a related but distinct set of risks. The relative informality of chamber culture, combined with the absence of any real institutional oversight of unpaid interns’ working conditions, leaves young women particularly exposed to harassment with limited recourse. The Protection against Harassment of Women at the Workplace Act, 2010, and its 2022 amendment, extended coverage to a wider range of workplace relationships, but enforcement inside small chambers as opposed to large corporate firms with formal HR departments remains largely theoretical. An unpaid intern hoping for a reference or a permanent position has every incentive to stay silent. None of this is to say every senior lawyer who takes on unpaid interns is acting in bad faith; many genuinely believe, as the profession has long insisted, that pupillage is an investment in the intern’s own future. But belief is not evidence, and there is little data testing whether unpaid pupillage produces better lawyers than a modestly paid one would, or whether firms would truly stop training juniors if a stipend were required. Given how heavily law firms already rely on interns for substantive work, it seems more likely that a minimum stipend requirement would simply formalize the value interns already provide. The fix does not require reinventing the wheel. The Pakistan Bar Council could amend its enrolment rules to require a minimum stipend during pupillage, as some foreign bar associations already do. Firms above a certain size could be required to register interns under the Apprenticeship Ordinance, bringing them within existing protections. And bar councils could extend meaningful, monitored harassment complaint mechanisms to chambers of every size, not just the handful of firms large enough to run their own HR departments. A profession built on the promise of equal treatment before the law owes its own newest entrants rather more consistency between what it argues in court and how it treats them at their desks.

By Dr. Naveeda Katper Human beings live in a world of countless needs and wants, but the resources available to meet those needs are limited. Food, shelter, education, health and a sense of belonging are among the basic requirements of life. Because resources are scarce, individuals, organizations and governments have to set priorities, make choices and use available resources wisely. Resources can broadly be divided into natural and human-made resources. Natural resources such as land, water, forests, minerals and energy come from nature. Human-made resources, including machines, buildings, technology and infrastructure, are developed by people using natural resources. Natural resources can be depleted, while human-made resources can depreciate through use and time. Human beings, however, are different from other resources. A person is not simply a consumer of resources. With education, training, health and appropriate opportunities, a person can develop knowledge and skills and become an important form of human capital. This is why human capital is often considered more valuable than other resources. Human beings discover, develop and manage resources. They create technology, improve production, solve problems and generate new ideas. Among the traditional factors of production—land, labour, capital and entrepreneurship—human effort remains central because it activates and combines the others. Education and skills are therefore essential for economic and social development. A person without education or employable skills may have limited opportunities to earn a stable income. A skilled person, on the other hand, can use available resources productively and create value for both themselves and society. Skills can take different forms. Hard skills include technical and professional abilities. Soft skills include communication, teamwork, discipline and problem-solving. Transferable skills can be applied across different occupations and workplaces. All of these can improve a person’s ability to participate productively in the economy. Developed economies provide useful examples of how investment in people can contribute to national development. Countries such as Finland, Norway, Singapore, Switzerland, Japan and South Korea have invested substantially in education, vocational training, technology and workforce development. Their experience shows that economic progress is not based only on natural resources or physical infrastructure. The knowledge, skills and productivity of people are equally important. Skills development should begin early in life. Children should not be taught only to memorise information. They should also be encouraged to ask questions, solve problems, make things, experiment and learn from mistakes. An education system that allows children to try, fail and try again can help develop confidence, creativity and practical thinking. Schools, vocational institutions and workplaces all have a role in this process. Young people need opportunities to connect education with practical skills. They should be able to understand how knowledge can be applied to real problems and employment opportunities. The challenge is particularly serious in developing and least-developed countries, where many people have limited access to quality education, technical training and decent employment. Weak educational systems, inadequate infrastructure and limited opportunities for formal employment can prevent large sections of the population from developing their full potential. The problem is not simply unemployment. It is also the gap between what people know and what the economy needs. Many young people complete some level of education but do not acquire the practical or technical skills required by employers. At the same time, businesses often struggle to find workers with the right skills. Pakistan faces a similar challenge. The country has a large and relatively young population, which can become an important economic advantage if the right investments are made. But population size alone does not create economic growth. A large population becomes an asset when people are healthy, educated, skilled and productively employed. The World Bank’s Human Capital Index has repeatedly highlighted the importance of investments in education, health and skills for Pakistan’s long-term economic prospects. Pakistan’s human-capital performance remains below that of many countries that have made stronger and more sustained investments in these areas. Improving the quality of education, expanding vocational training and increasing opportunities for productive employment should therefore be treated as national priorities. Formal education, however, should not be considered the only route to developing human capital. Many adults who did not receive adequate schooling can still acquire useful skills through vocational and technical training. Short courses in areas such as construction, agriculture, livestock, tailoring, information technology, electrical work, plumbing, mechanics, hospitality and other trades can provide people with opportunities to earn a livelihood. Such training should not remain concentrated in major cities. Local training centres and mobile skill programmes can take practical education to towns and villages. Community-level training can help women, young people and adults who cannot easily access conventional educational institutions. Pakistan can also benefit from stronger links between education and the labour market. Training programmes should be designed after identifying the skills actually demanded by local and national economies. Employers, educational institutions and government departments should work together to ensure that training leads to real opportunities rather than certificates alone. The private sector also has an important role. Businesses can provide apprenticeships, internships and on-the-job training. Young people can gain valuable experience when they are given opportunities to learn directly in workplaces. Human capital development should also include lifelong learning. Technology and the nature of work are changing rapidly. Skills that are valuable today may become less relevant tomorrow. Workers therefore need opportunities to update their knowledge and acquire new skills throughout their careers. The central lesson is simple: people should not be viewed merely as consumers of a country’s resources. With proper investment, they become producers, innovators, entrepreneurs, teachers, technicians, researchers and problem-solvers. They create value from resources that might otherwise remain underused. For Pakistan, this is both a challenge and an opportunity. The country’s young population can become a powerful economic resource if it receives quality education, healthcare, practical skills and meaningful employment opportunities. But if these needs are ignored, population growth can increase pressure on already limited resources. Human capital is therefore not a secondary concern. It is one of the foundations of sustainable development. Roads, buildings, machines, technology and natural