Its about time our transgender folks given basic ID cards as a seperate dependent verification system. When we live in era of global acceptance of trans community all over in each every nation?
A WORLD run on common sense would be so much more convenient for all of us men, women and thousands upon thousands of those whose efforts continue to be frustrated by a biased system. Instead, we have to constantly go to court for arbitration on matters that by now officialdom should have found a solution to. A group of transgenders has now moved the Peshawar High Court to take note of the absence of a column in the national identity card and census form that acknowledges them as they are and recognises their presence in fact, existence as Pakistani citizens.
The group held a news conference in Peshawar last week where its members managed to show that they had some support from civil society. In general, however, this fight for recognition is likely to be a long one.
It has been pointed out how the case of transgenders is more easily and more frequently highlighted in the media than was the case some years ago. Almost every other day there is a news feature about transgenders in one of the newspapers or on television, reminding those who care to note of how these Pakistanis cannot be wished away no matter how distant from them those who operate the system may want to be.
Not least disturbing have been news items about the violence that transgenders are routinely subjected to on one pretext or another. Signals that governments in Pakistan were preparing to take some pioneering decisions for relief for the transgenders have so far proved false. The recognition and redressal of the problems that trangenders have long been demanding are nowhere in sight and this fact could further embolden elements who think that the transgender community is an easy target because it has no one to protect it. These Pakistani citizens who are pressing for their representation and justifiably so continue to pay a heavy price for a system that is so very reluctant to correct itself.
Published in Dawn September 12th, 2016
Source http://www.dawn.com/news/1283528/transgenders-travails
A WORLD run on common sense would be so much more convenient for all of us men, women and thousands upon thousands of those whose efforts continue to be frustrated by a biased system. Instead, we have to constantly go to court for arbitration on matters that by now officialdom should have found a solution to. A group of transgenders has now moved the Peshawar High Court to take note of the absence of a column in the national identity card and census form that acknowledges them as they are and recognises their presence in fact, existence as Pakistani citizens.
The group held a news conference in Peshawar last week where its members managed to show that they had some support from civil society. In general, however, this fight for recognition is likely to be a long one.
It has been pointed out how the case of transgenders is more easily and more frequently highlighted in the media than was the case some years ago. Almost every other day there is a news feature about transgenders in one of the newspapers or on television, reminding those who care to note of how these Pakistanis cannot be wished away no matter how distant from them those who operate the system may want to be.
Not least disturbing have been news items about the violence that transgenders are routinely subjected to on one pretext or another. Signals that governments in Pakistan were preparing to take some pioneering decisions for relief for the transgenders have so far proved false. The recognition and redressal of the problems that trangenders have long been demanding are nowhere in sight and this fact could further embolden elements who think that the transgender community is an easy target because it has no one to protect it. These Pakistani citizens who are pressing for their representation and justifiably so continue to pay a heavy price for a system that is so very reluctant to correct itself.
Published in Dawn September 12th, 2016
Source http://www.dawn.com/news/1283528/transgenders-travails
