KARACHI: “Hamari Manzoori Ho Gai!” chanted Fauzia, a transgender, as she clapped and triumphantly danced to the beat of a drum on Tuesday outside the Karachi Press Club (KPC).
Along with many of her ilk, Fauzia was rejoicing the inclusion of the third gender column in the National Database Registration Authority (Nadra) registration form for computerised national identity cards (CNICs). “We have got our identity!” Fauzia said when asked about the benefits of a separate box for the transgendered in CNICs.
“Would any of you be ready to wear ladies’ clothes if offered Rs 100,000?” Fauzia rhetorically questioned the men gathered at the KPC. “No, never!” she replied. The euphoria and excitement among the transgendered was not only palpable but understandable.
Following their protracted struggle for recognition, the Supreme Court of Pakistan in 2009 had ordered that transgendered be issued CNICs, with a specific column added to the registration form to match their sexual orientation.
A new NADRA policy was launched on Monday, with separate checkboxes included for both male transgenders (Khwaja Sira) as well as female (Narkha) ones. Jubilant members of the third sex celebrated the historical achievement, with many of them thanking Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhary for recognising their difference.
“We would now be able to gain respectable employment, health benefits and other facilities,” Reena, another transgender, told Pakistan Today. “We will not demand separate hospitals and other facilities,” said Bindia Rana, also affectionately known in the transgender community as Gia.
Gia is in fact an acronym for Gender Interactive Alliance, and Bindia Rana is the president of the organisation. All transgendered present outside the KPC introduced Rana as their leader, and gave her credit for their victory.
