Trans activists to appeal FSC ruling against law
Karachi:transgender activists in Pakistan said they plan to appeal to the highest court in the land an Islamic court’s ruling that guts a law aimed at protecting their rights.
The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act was passed by Parliament in 2018 to secure the fundamental rights of transgender Pakistanis. It ensures their access to legal gender recognition, among other rights.
The Federal Shariat Court (FSC) on Friday struck down several provisions of the landmark law, terming them “un-islamic.”
It ruled that a person cannot change their gender on the basis of “innermost feeling” or “self-perceived identity” and must conform to the biological sex assigned to them at the time of birth.
“We absolutely intend to appeal the court’s findings to the Supreme Court, and we will prevail,” said Nayyab Ali, executive director of Transgender Rights Consultants Pakistan, at a news conference on Friday.
Ali said the transgender community was “mourning the decimation” of Pakistan’s first transgender rights protection legislation in response to the Islamic court’s finding.
However, clerics and representatives from religious parties say the law has the potential to promote homosexuality in the country.
The FSC ruled that the term “transgender” as it is used in the law creates confusion. It covers several biological variations, including intersex, transgender men, transgender women and Khawaja Sira.
It also rejected a clause in the law in which the country’s national database and registration authority permits the change of a person’s biological gender from the one they were assigned at birth in identification documents including driving licences and passports.
It said permiting any person to change their gender in accordance with his or her inner feeling or self-perceived identity will create “serious religious, legal and social problems.”
For example it will allow a transgender woman — a person who is biologically male
— to access social and religious gatherings of females or women-only public places, and vice versa, it said.
“This law will pave the way for criminals in society to easily commit crimes like sexual molestation, sexual assault and even rape against females in the disguise of a transgender woman,” the court ruled.