Daily Times

LAHORE: Civil society has hailed the Lahore High Court (LHC) ruling directing the government to include members of transgender community in upcoming national census starting from March 2017.

Human rights activists and members of civil society in a meeting on Tuesday at the South Asia Partnership Pakistan (SAP-PK) hailed the landmark decision of the Lahore High Court. The meeting was organised by the AAWAZ Forum.

The order of LHC was issued on a petition, which was moved by a transgender, who was also a focal person of AAWAZ Programme on transgender group in Lahore.

They said that the federal government had also acknowledged equal rights of the deprived and poor of the poorest citizens of Pakistan, the transgender people, by giving them the right to be counted in national census.

They said that transgender people should be given equal social, economic and political rights. The SAP-PK saluted the long struggle by a transgender, who launched a campaign under the banner of AAWAZ district Forum, for their recognition as equal citizens and to be counted in national census.

The SAP-Pakistan also expressed that it would be nice, if government could count nomadic community and mine workers in the census. They also appreciated the media for highlighting the news pertaining to inclusion of transgender people in census.