Equal Benefits for Trans People in Pakistan?

by Michael A. Jones

categories: International Gay Rights, LGBT Rights and Politics, Transgender Issues

Published July 19, 2009 @ 05:49AM PT

Though homosexuality is criminalized in Pakistan with penalties ranging from fines to imprisonment to death by stoning, the Pakistani Supreme Court ruled this week that trans citizens should have greater access to benefits and equal rights. It's a welcome development, for a country that along with Egypt, Libya, Sudan, and Iran have fought to portray LGBT rights as a western concept imposed on countries around the world by an immoral and extravagent western world.

Still, good ruling aside, this doesn't necessarily mean the end of persecution for trans folks in Pakistan.  But first, here's a summary of the Supreme Court in Islamabad's ruling:

The Supreme Court has ordered that trans people, being equal citizens of Pakistan, should also benefit from the federal and provincial governments’ financial support schemes...

‘They are citizens of Pakistan and enjoy the same protection guaranteed under Article four (rights of individuals to be dealt with in accordance of law) and Article nine (security of person) of the Constitution,’ ruled a three-member bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Muhammad Sair Ali and Justice Jawwad S Khawaja.

Tangibly, there are a few things that this ruling should do. It should:

• Allow trans people to receive financial support through Bait-ul-Maal (a worldwide relief and development organisation);
• Require that the government survey, likely through a census, the number of trans people living in Pakistan, which is estimated to be around 400,000; and
• Direct Pakistan's Interior Ministry to ensure that police officers are providing protection to trans people from criminal elements

Those sound like good things, and if they are enforced, this ruling will do wonders.  As Gay Persons of Color blog notes, "After years of discrimination and exploitation during which transgender persons in Pakistan have often been refused entry to schools and hospitals, turned down properties for rent or purchase, and have even been denied formal burial rites after death, this recognition of the community as a protected minority is an historic step."

A historic step, for sure.  But in a throwback to reality, one of the plaintiffs in this case demonstrated just how dire the situation is for LGBT people in Pakistan.  The plaintiff, a trans person known as Shazia, said outside the court:

My appearance before the court today may cost me my life.  Once I was implicated in a false case and subjected to immense sexual torture by the police...

Frightening that simply appearing in court to fight for your rights could end up getting you killed.

Still, this decision is a move in the right direction for a country that remains one of just a few to still keep capital punishment on the books as punishment for sexual orientation.  Here's hoping that the ruling also affirms that courts in countries like Pakistan can be an objective force for determining the rule of law and protecting civil rights, as opposed to branches of a religious sect hell-bent on enforcing religious dogma.

(Photo courtesy of Back from Pakistan!'s photostream on Flickr.)