This time last year, the future looked bright for Pakistan’s transgender community. After all, the so-called third gender column was included in passports. And then in May of this year came the landmark Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act. Such was the optimism of this minority group that some 13 transgender persons decided to throw their hats into the ballot-box ring; with 11 contesting provincial assembly seats and two eyeing the Upper house. Yet all this may be about to go up in smoke; with the transgender hopefuls from Lahore vowing to boycott the polls as candidates. All because the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) failed to include in nomination papers a separate gender column. And while it endeavoured to compensate for this stark oversight by requesting candidates to simply identify themselves with the letter C — this is simply not good enough. It risks reducing to mere tokenism the very real gains that this community has worked long and hard to secure. Whereas transgender rights must be recognised as fundamental human rights. All the aforementioned positives, including Pakistan’s first transgender school, will be diminished if those from this community are not permitted to contest the polls on equal footing with everyone else. For barring individuals or groups from actively courting votes on a representational basis suggests election manipulation by another name. Nevertheless, it teaches Pakistan’s minority groups an unwelcome but important lesson. That being the need to forge strong alliances with others. This was put to effective use in Thatcher’s Britain. Back in 1984, when coal miners went on strike to protest colliery closures they found unlikely allies in the shape of what would today be referred to as the LGBT community. The favour was returned when, in 1986, Labour added rights for sexual orientation minorities to its party manifesto; due to pressure from the National Union of Mine workers. Closer to home, Pakistan’s transgender community should look to garnering support from women across the class divide. For the latter know better than most what it is to be persecuted by the patriarchy; and lower-income women understand the double burden of oppression. In return, the transgender community can advocate for women when it comes to inheritance or in ensuring justice in rape cases. We urge the authorities to resolve this issue at the earliest in a manner that is acceptable to the transgender community. After all, there is little point in putting certain legislation on the books only to stall when it comes to enforcement. * Published in Daily Times, June 13th 2018.