ISLAMABAD: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) will defend the Transgender Protection Act 2018 and if needed will also reach out to all those who have launched a campaign against it with a view to removing grave misunderstandings about the Act circulated on the social media.
PPP-Parliamentarian Secretary General Farhatullah Babar expressed these views while addressing a news conference at the National Press Club in Islamabad organised by members of Transgender community on Saturday evening.
He said that the PPP has always stood by the rights of marginalised sections of society and the trans-persons were the most marginalised so much so that in most case even their own families had abandoned them and left them to cruel treatment.
“Never before a law duly passed by the Parliament has been so grossly misunderstood and so grossly misinterpreted as the Transgender Protect Act 2018. These misconceptions have fueled more hatred in the society against transgender person and further endangered their lives as witnessed in the spurt in attacks on them. It is necessary to correct the perspective and remove the misconceptions.” he said.
Babar said that confusion had been created by misunderstanding that the Act allowed change of gender from male to female or vice versa. This is absolutely wrong, he said, adding, “no male can modify his gender as female nor can any female modify her gender as male under the Act.”
“It is also wrong to link the law to promotion of sexual vices. The law does not talk of marriages of transgender persons and is only about the rights of a most persecuted community. It is about guaranteeing the rights of life, of education, of health, of employment, of inheritance of transgender- rights that have been guaranteed to all citizens by the Constitution,” he said.
Referring to the condition of medical examination now proposed in an amendment to the Act moved by a senator, he said that Nadra issued about 125,000 cards daily. 56 percent of these are women. Nadra did not ask any man or woman to prove his/her gender then why discriminate against trans-people? He asked.
He said that transgender citizens can only get X card, not that of a male or a female.
“If the state trusts male or female ID card applicants, why should a trans citizen have to undergo humiliation before receiving an X card?” he questioned.
It is claimed that the definition of a transgender person is not limited to real transgender but is a cover for gays, he said and added that there is no mention at all of these terms in the ACT. These apprehensions are based on misconceptions and lack of knowledge, he said.
He said that it is also wrong to say that there is no procedure while applying for X card to Nadra. Transgender Persons Rules, 2020 provide elaborate procedures for applying for CNIC card for transgender or for amending the existing CNIC, he said.
Farhatullah Babar said as for the arguments about it being against Islamic principles… the matter was sub-judice and arguments will be made before the Shariat Court. During discussions leading to the adoption of the Act, however, the Council of Islamic Ideology was consulted, he said and that the Council then did not object to it.
He urged that vile propaganda against the Act be stopped as it only endangered the lives of transgender persons and exposed them to even greater ridicule, hatred, and threats to their lives.
Babar said that he did not doubt the intentions of those opposing the Act. The senator who has moved an amendment has a right to do so. However, it was necessary to clarify the misperceptions about the Trans Act, he said and expressed the hope that once clarity was improved sanity will prevail.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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