Pakistan: Trans community in Pakistan rejects ‘misleading’ trans rights bill

Members of the transgender community in Pakistan have rejected a bill purporting to protect their rights, calling it “misleading”.

The Senate Functional Committee on Human Rights recently passed The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill 2017.  But activists described the bill as “misleading and inaccurate according to international standards and the United Nations.”

A spokesperson for the Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s special committee on trans rights said: “No doubt the passage of the bill is a landmark achievement, but the definition of transgender in it is misleading and inaccurate according to international standards and the UN.”

“Provinces have to pass resolutions under Article 144 for the enactment of such a Bill but it is less likely to happen as three provinces are already drafting their own provincial bills,” he added.

One activist, Nadeem Kashish, said: “One of the major flaws in the bill is that in 2012, the Supreme Court had ordered that no one should be given transgender identity without a chromosome test, but the Bill states otherwise.” Read more via Pink News