Daily Times

With just a few months to go before Pakistanis go ballot-boxing — the transgender community of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) has its eyes firmly on this summer’s elections. Both in terms of voting in and contesting them.

Thus this week has seen TransAction — a community-based organisation working to make KP and the tribal areas safe for the transgender community — approach the Peshawar High Court (PHC) to request all efforts be made to ensure that the electoral process is as accommodating to this group as possible. Among their legitimate demands are that the Election Commission of Pakistan visibly identify which polling booths are to be used by the transgender community; as well as according them priority voting. This is intended to avoid members of this group having to queue up only to be confronted with polling staff ill-equipped to deal with their particular needs. Another is the inclusion of a new column for the transgender and intersex community; thereby enabling them to stand for the popular vote.

We wholeheartedly support these moves. After all, no nation can claim to be ‘civilised’ when its minorities are discriminated against by the law of the land. And members of the transgender community here in Pakistan have for too long faced physical violence and harassment as well as unequal treatment. This may or may not be a colonial overhang. In other words, when the British ruled the subcontinent they passed the Criminal Tribes Act, 1871. This provided for the arrest of anyone dressed as a woman who was not biologically born one; or one who was not cis-gender, to use modern parlance. Not only that, this detention extended to dancing and playing music in public whilst in ‘unconventional’ garb. Fast-forward to today and not much has changed for this beleaguered community who continues to live on society’s fringes; tolerated as long as they beg for a living or become paid sex workers.

Nevertheless, things are changing and for the better. This is a process that was kick started back in 2012, when NADRA introduced the third-gender option for all CNICs. Yet it was not until last summer that the government issued the first third-sex passport to transgender activist Farzana Jan. Another first, also last year, was the recognition of this community by the national census. Most recently, the Senate this month approved changes to the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill, 2017; providing the right to be self-identify gender without requiring a medical board examination. Even the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) — an institution known for its reluctance to embrace progressive change — backed the amendments. Other religious conservatives have also been more welcoming to this community. Last year the Tablighi Jamaat welcomed a group of transgender people into their fold; allowing them to preach on the Jamaat’s behalf.

Now it is up to the government to guarantee their voting rights. For although the census puts the population of the community at 10,000 — less than 1,500appear on the country’s electoral rolls. This simply will not do. For without the right to directly elect parliamentary representatives there is no democracy. Thus we call on the state to resolve this matter for Pakistan’s non-Muslim minorities, too.

Published in Daily Times, February 15^th 2018.