The appointment of a commissioner for transgender persons at the Wafaqi Mohtasib Secretariat (WMS) is a welcome news. Trans people are perhaps the most marginalised segment of Pakistani society. Ridicule and refusal to acknowledge their basic human dignity by the public has turned transgender citizens into social pariahs.
Pakistan’s attitude towards the transgender community makes it very unlikely that most of them, even after they acquire education, will be able to get a well-paying job. Most of them can only earn their living on a daily basis as beggars, prostitutes, or professional dancers.
One recent tragedy which highlights the horrendous treatment of trans people in this country was the discovery of a mutilated body of a trans person in Peshawar’s Darmangi area in October last year. When the body was brought to the Khyber Medical College (KMC) morgue, the morgues management refused to keep it, saying that it would ‘contaminate’ the freezers. Eventually, the corpse had to be handed over to the Edhi foundation.
Social discrimination reflects in the attitude of law enforcement officials as well. The presence of a dedicated commissioner for them was, thus, absolutely necessary. Several reports in recent years have highlighted that trans people are often harassed and abused whenever they have to interact with the police. The WMS has the power to redress public grievances by proceeding against personnel of state agencies who act in beyond the purview of the law.
Going forward, more needs to be done to improve the status of transgender citizens. It is important to remember here that many of them couldn’t even vote before 2012, since there was no provision in the CNIC for transgender identity, keeping many from obtaining their identity document.
Even today, out of the 10,418 trans people documented in the census, only 1,456 are registered on the electoral rolls. The authorities must strive to ensure that all eligible persons from every community are registered on the electoral rolls. *
Published in Daily Times, January 8th 2018.
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