A writ petition filed by a transgender citizen Ashi Jan has led to the Lahore High Court (LHC) seeking a response from the Punjab government and the Inspector General (IG) of police. Justice Shujaat Ali Khan has set the 1st of November for hearing and the responses of the concerned authorities are required before it takes place.
Ashi Jan’s petition argued that Article 25 of the Constitution guaranteed equal rights for transgender citizens, and that they were to be accorded the “right to all kinds of employment” based on Article 27. In failing to recruit a single transgender individual over the past 10 years, the petition argued, police authorities had failed to fulfill their duties according to the Constitution. Moreover, the petition also cited the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2018.
The court has pointed out that this petition takes up a matter of “public importance.” In this context, two senior lawyers Mazhar Ilahi and Ali Afzal Sahi, as well as chairperson of Islamic Studies at Government College University (GCU) Lahore, are called upon as amicus curiae at the next hearing.
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