PAKISTAN ISSUES ITS FIRST PASSPORT WITH A TRANSGENDER CATEGORY

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s marginalised transgender community on Wednesday welcomed the government’s decision to issue its first passport with a transgender category as an important milestone in the struggle against discrimination. The conservative South Asian nation, where homosexuality is a crime, last week issued a passport to prominent transgender activist Farzana Jan with an X to symbolise the third sex printed under the gender category of travel document. Jan, who is president of the charity Trans Action Pakistan, said the introduction of the X classification — along with M for Male and F for Female — was a significant step in the community’s fight for legal recognition in Pakistan.