Supreme Court set to hire two transgender persons

• NADRA chairman tells court CNICs are being issued to transgender people
• Apex court takes notice of website spreading ‘misinformation’

ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar has said that the Supreme Court (SC) will hire two transgender persons as a part of the top court’s efforts to give equal rights to the transgender community.

The remark came as the apex court was hearing a case pertaining to transgender persons’ rights in Pakistan on Tuesday.

“In our society transgender people are subjected to ridicule. It is our top most priority to give them their rights,” He asserted.

The chief justice added that he will also write to non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government as the case proceeds.

“Court wants to bring them into the mainstream. It wants to resolve their issues,” said the CJP, while presiding over a three-judge bench.

NATIONAL IDENTITY CARDS: 

During the hearing, the court asked the chairman of the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) whether identity cards to all transgender applicants had been issued. To which, the NADRA chief informed that the body was issuing cards and a facilitation campaign has also been initiated in this regard.

The chief justice brought attention to the persecution of transgender people in KP, stressing that actions should be taken to facilitate them: “Transgender persons are mocked and insulted in KP; they have been murdered. These incidents are cause for defamation.”

SPREAD OF MISINFORMATION:

The court also took exception to a website which was ‘involved in spreading misleading information’ against the murder of transgender persons in the country. “The misleading information on this website is damaging the country’s image,” the court was told.

It was further said that an NGO named Blue Veins had established the website which claims as many as 500 transgender persons have been murdered. The hearing was adjourned till September 26.