In a unique show of solidarity with the transgender community, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader and Sindh Women Development Minister Shehla Raza along with Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Junior, grandson of PPP founder Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, shared the stage with transgender persons at the first Sindh Moorat March held on Sunday at the Frere Hall.
Addressing the march, Shehla asked till when transgender persons would earn living by either dancing or begging. She said that they needed to be accepted by society. She announced that in Sindh, the community would get a job quota. Speaking on the controversy related to the law related to transgender persons, she announced that they would address the legal complications and start a grand dialogue on the issue.
As some march organisers chanted slogans in favour of the PPP and the Bhutto family, Zulfiqar junior was visibly annoyed. He grabbed the microphone and passionately said, “Jiye Bhutto Choro, Jiye Awaam, Jiye Khawajasara [Keep ‘long live Bhutto’ aside, say long live people, long live transgender]”.
He said that his family (Bhuttos) had no claim over Sindh and it was the land of its people and the Khawajasira community. Before he took the microphone, Shehla had left the stage. The Sindh Moorat March, according to its organisers, is a collective effort of the anti-colonial and grassroots Khawajasira rights activists from across Sindh.
The organisers have made several demands such as criminalising transphobic hate speech. Disowning transgender children and abandoning them should be a criminal offence for parents or legal guardians, they say. Their another demand is the implementation of the existing 0.2 per cent quota for transgender persons in jobs.
The march organisers have also called for the federal government to protect and defend the Transgender Persons Protections of Rights Act 2018 and Rules 2020 in their original form. They have also asked the Sindh government to legislate to ensure the protection of transgender persons’ rights.
Transgender Malika Khan from Rawalpindi was part of the march. She was hardly seven years old when her family disowned her. Talking to The News she shared how the Khawajasira community owned and brought her up. “I found my guru and mother in the community,” she said, adding that her guru taught her how to survive as a Khawajasira in society.
Gender Interactive Alliance lawyer Sara Malkani said the 2018 law was completely in accordance with the Constitution and Islam. She said the transgender persons were the citizens of Pakistan and they had all the rights that a common citizen enjoyed in the country.
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