Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Senator Mohsin Aziz on Monday branded the transgender “disgusting”.
Aziz made the comments, where in he likened the trans to People of Lot, in a Senate session. “The trans are disgusting. There is a profound difference between them and the intersex. The latter are a creation of the Almighty. The trans, on the other hand he said, are simply gross.”
Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani separately told journalists said the Senate would never introduce legislation repugnant to Islamic injunctions. He said the transgender act must not be politicised. He said counsel of religious scholars and Council of Islamic Ideology would be sought if the need to do so arose.
Legal expert Reema Omer said on Wednesday that criticism of the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2018 was ‘malicious, opportunistic and entirely baseless’. In a series of tweets, she said that the law was enacted after months of research, deliberations and consultations, and it has support from all major political parties, the National Commission for Human Rights, members of Council of Islamic Ideology, civil society groups, and transgender community.
“The law reaffirms fundamental rights of transgender people, including education, equality, health, access to public spaces, political participation, and livelihood. It also recognises the right of transgender people to get their identity cards changed in accordance with their self-perceived gender identity,” she said, adding that it does not cover homosexuality or same-sex relations. She urged the people to embrace the law as it is an effort to undo oppressive colonial laws that criminalised transgender identities in the region, viewing them as ‘deviant’ and ‘imposters’.
How insensitive! And this happens in the land of Bulle Shah.
Can the majority stop dictating their archaic worldview on the minority groups and stop discrimination on the basis of protected characteristics of race, gender, religion, colour, religion or age if we are ever going to be a modern state. And for Pakistan please add social class to this list. Humans deserves to be treated equally and these rights are not for anyone else to hold back. And stop maligning religion for it. There is an unwritten verse in any holy book. It’s “use your common sense first. If ain’t right don’t do it”.