Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) has put the primary responsibility of gender identification of children on parents and suggested that punishment should be proposed in law for those parents who abandon their transgender children. The CII shared its interim report on the proposed legislation for the protection of rights of transgender community - The Transgender Person [Protection of Rights] Bill, 2017 - with Senate Functional Committee on Human Rights on Wednesday which met in the chair of Senator Nasreen Jalil here at the Parliament House.
Briefing the committee on the Bill, Director General CII Dr Inamullah said that the Council discussed all the aspects of the Bill in detail and it will present its final report before the committee on February 8.
He said that the transgender persons, who have adopted whatsoever gender on their will, should be recognized. He said that it is responsibility of the parents to identify gender of their children, adding there should also be punishment prescribed in the legislation for those parents who abandon their children on the grounds of being transgender.
On the issue of inheritance, he said that the decision of court will be final on the matter of inheritance.
Committee member Farhatullah Babar pointed out that National Database Registration Authority (NADRA) is issuing Computerized National Identity Cards (CNICs) to transgender persons not on the basis of medical test but on submission of an affidavit with the authority.
Chairperson Committee Nasreen Jalil, however, said that the panel would send the Bill to the Senate after final endorsement by the CII and approval by the committee in its meeting to be held on February 8, 2018.
The committee also expressed serious concern over the killing of Naqeebullah Mehsud in Karachi allegedly in a police encounter and also decided that its next meeting will be held in Karachi on January 31, 2018 to get briefing on the incident.
Taking notice of murder after rape of a minor girl in Mardan, the committee decided to travel to Mardan for a meeting with officials concerned to further ascertain the facts. Committee member Nisar Mohammad said that every case of child abuse should be dealt in the manner of Kasur incident - Zainab murder case. Senator Sitara Ayaz said that the killer of Zainab has been arrested while the murderer of Asma, a minor of Mardan, was still at large.
Senator Sehar Kamran raised the issue of Zulfiqar Ali, a Pakistani prisoner sentenced to death on drug charges in Indonesia despite the fact that no material evidence exists in this regard. She said the accused, who is also a father of five children, suffers from stage-4 terminal liver cancer which has spread to both lobes of liver and his only hope for survival is a liver transplant urgently. He needs government support otherwise he will die without getting a fair chance of trial and justice.
On the suggestion of Senator Sehar, the committee agreed to write a letter to Prime Minister Abbasi requesting him to appeal for sympathy for the accused during the forthcoming visit of the Indonesian President to Pakistan on January 26. She also appealed to the civil society to raise Zulfiqar's case on humanitarian grounds.
Sehar Kamran also raised a murder case of Dilawar Abbas, a resident of Gilgit-Baltistan, who was recently beaten to death by a group of 20 students in a local college in Lahore, and demanded justice for the family of the deceased and action against the culprits.