What is the Pakistan Transgender Act 2018? What does this act have to do with LGBTQ? For whom this law has been passed, i.e., “eunuchs”, they are also condemning this act. Why?
To elaborate this issue we invited Deputy Secretary Information Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (Sindh) and well know religious analyst Inayat-ur-Rehman Shamsi in MM News program “Deen ki Dunya”.
MM News: Frist of all Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam raised objections on this bill. What are these objections which has made this act controversial?
Samiul Haq Swati: This bill was passed in 2018. The bill was tabled in Senate and the National Assembly at a time when the number of members was very less. Naeema Kishore, a female member of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, was present in the National Assembly. She raised objections and criticized this bill and urged the then NA Speaker Ayaz Sadique to send the bill to the committee and it should be discussed before voting. She pointed out that this is a very sensitive issue, if you pass it without discussion in the committee it will become controversial and will go against our social values and that is what is happening today. The bill was brought in under the guise of transgender deprivation, the main objection of religious parties is that this bill allow a person to go to NADRA and change his gender. We believe that this is the way to go to homosexuality, which is why it has been opposed by religious parties.
MM News: Are the same people not behind this act who say “my body my will”? What do you say about this?
Sami-ul-Haq Swati: It can be, people who were earlier working on the slogan of “my body my will” are now working on the act. You will be surprised that religious parties are not the only ones against this act. Rather, the actual eunuchs are also protesting, because eunuchs say this bill have nothing to do with them.
MM News: To solve the real problems of transgender, our religious parties should come forward, and sit with the government and create a framework so that their problems can be solved in a real sense, what do you say about this?
Sami-ul-Haq Swati: Islam has given all rights to transgenders, even, there is a separate row for them for prayer in the mosque, Islam has given them rights in every forum, a lot of work is being done by Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam in this regard. This act will be changed and the western lobby will be failed.
MM News: Why is this bill being called the Transgender Act and what are the controversial provisions in this bill?
Inayat Shamsi: This is not a bill but an act that has become a law, it is the Transgender Persons Protection Rights Act 2018, when this bill was presented and passed, its background is that there are some sections in our society. Some have all the rights, some have no rights, some classes are oppressed, while one class belongs to eunuchs, this is also an oppressed class, when their gender is identified, they are thrown out of their homes. The transgender leader Almas Bobi approached the Supreme Court for the right of eunuchs, on it the Supreme Court accepted her petition and after hearing it, Chief Justice ordered that the transgenders should be given their basic rights, but unfortunately instead of making law to address the real issues of eunuchs a controversial bill was passed in the parliament under a specific western agenda.
