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Pakistan transgender activists welcome order on ID cards

Supreme Court rules that third gender should receive free national identity cards before the general election
Pakistan transgender activists welcome order on ID cards

General Interactive Alliance president Bindiya Rana (left) speaks to the media in Karachi on June 5. (Photo supplied by Bindiya Rana)

Published: June 21, 2018 10:50 AM GMT
Updated: June 21, 2018 10:55 AM GMT

Pakistan's transgender rights activists have hailed a court ruling to issue free national identity cards to the third gender ahead of the next general election.

Presiding over a two-judge Supreme Court bench on June 18, Chief Justice Saqib Nisar ordered that a special committee be constituted to oversee provision of free computerized national identity cards (CNICs) to the transgender community. He also sought recommendations to protect their fundamental rights within three weeks.

"All those transgender persons who have CNICs should be allowed to exercise their right to vote. The Khwaja Saras (transgenders) are an important part of our society," Justice Nisar said. 

Bindiya Rana, president of the General Interactive Alliance, a non-profit organization working for the rights of eunuchs, said getting a CNIC is one of many problems a transgender person has to face in Pakistan.

"We thank the chief justice for taking notice of our plight and ordering its redressal," she said.

"When our people go to the office of the National Database Registration Authority (NDRA), they are asked to bring their siblings, not realizing the fact many are abandoned by their parents. How can we do that? And if someone persuades his/her siblings to accompany them, they are ridiculed or shamed by NDRA staff."

Rana urged the sensitizing of government employees and other private and public sector workers to address widespread gender discrimination. She also called on people to support transgender candidates seeking to contest elections.

Ayesha Gulalai, a former parliamentarian, has set up her own political party and will have four transgender candidates in the general election on July 25.

"This shows that attitudes are changing towards the transgender community in Pakistan. They are being recognized and accepted as normal citizens," she said.

Wajood, a non-profit organization working for empowerment of the transgender community in Pakistan, has also welcomed the Supreme Court's decision.

"I respect the chief justice for setting up a committee to safeguard the rights of the transgender community," chief executive Bubbli Malik told ucanews.com.

She drew the attention of the court and government to the Saudi Arabian government's refusal to grant visas to transgender people for the umrah and haj pilgrimages.

"This is an assault on our religious freedom. Similar problems have been witnessed in the U.A.E. and other Gulf countries. Pakistan is a sovereign nation and its decision to add an x [third] gender to the identity card should be respected by Saudis," Malik said.

"Pakistani authorities should write to the Saudi government and ask them to review their decision."

Pakistan's population of transgender people recorded in the sixth population and housing census in 2017 was 10,418. But both Rana and Malik dispute the figure, saying the population could be somewhere between 250,000 and 300,000.

"Make a trip to Rawalpindi and you will see thousands of transgenders on the city's streets. The census isn't correct as far as our community is concerned," Malik said.

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