ISLAMABAD: Two bills aimed at securing the rights of transgender persons in the country were presented in NA yesterday. The bill was proposed by JUI-F’s Naeema Kishwar Khan and it includes reforms to the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) and Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), as well as the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill 2017.

For the first time ever, a bill has been proposed for the sake of the recognition of the Transgender community.

The reform bill declares the definition of “transgender” as, “any person whose gender identity and/or gender expression differs from the society norms and cultural expectations based on the sex they were assigned at the time of their birth”. The  bill makes it lawful to allow such persons from inheriting property, and forbids them from unlawfully be evicted from any premises or deny them entry to educational institutions.

Meanwhile the bill cherishes all the rights given transgender individuals. These include actions such as, “The official recognition of an individual’s gender identity as their perceive it, the prohibition of harassment of or discrimination against transgender individuals in any walk of life.”

Before this bill, only once a true recognition of this community came and that from a Supreme Court ruling that declared a number of basic rights such as inheritance, issuance of a CNIC and entitlement to jobs, along with protection from police harassment.

Guarantee of basic rights for Transgender community highlighted in the constitution is also presented in this bill. It also summarizes some of the most important rights denied to transgender individuals, such as the right to hold public office, the right to vote, the right to inherit property and the right to access public places.