Bill on trans persons referred to Senate panel

ISLAMABAD: Chairman Senate Committee on Interior Senator Mohsin Aziz Wednesday tabled Intersex Persons (Protection of Rights) (Amendment) Bill, 2022 in the Senate for making important changes to the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2018.

Keeping in view the importance of the bill, Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani referred it to the committee concerned of the Senate for consideration. The statement of object and reasons of the Intersex Persons (Protection of Rights) (Amendment) Bill, 2022 is to ensure welfare of the intersex persons commonly known as ‘Khawajasara’ in the society.

As per the Bill, intersex persons shall have the right to get education, healthcare, employment and other opportunities on a par with the normal human beings in the society. It has been explained in the Bill that the primary objective of this Act, 2018 should have been to protect the rights of Khawajasara. An intersex person generally means a person with ambiguous genitalia and is also known as hermaphrodite. But, unfortunately, in the Act, 2018, there are some provisions which are totally contrary to our traditions, religion and even against the Constitution.

The bill has been designed to cater to the requirements for welfare of Khawajasara by deleting all those sections of the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2018 which are against the injunctions of Islam and Constitution.

It has also been explained in the bill that the term “Transgender” was launched by an American psychiatrist John F. Oliven in1965. It was essentially meant for persons who experience sexual orientation against their sex at birth. This is primarily a disordered mental state where a man may “feel-like” a woman or a woman “feel-like” a man or sometimes even may have “fluid gender perceptions” which is called “non-binary” gender. It is psychological/psychiatric state of mind and cannot be equated to “Intersex”.