KARACHI – Pakistan’s first transgender doctor and rights activist Sarah Gill kick-started her professional career on Tuesday with a house job at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical College (JPMC).
The development comes two weeks after Sarah made history by becoming the first transgender in the country’s history to pass the professional MBBS exam.
According to a statement released by the Chief Minister’s House, Sarah met JPMC Executive Director Shahid Rasool to receive her employment letter.
Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah congratulated Sarah on receiving the letter and vowed to take steps to provide employment opportunities to transgender persons in every sector.
The statement said that Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto had directed the public institute to offer job to Sarah.
Sarah passed her final MBBS exam from the Jinnah Medical and Dental College in Karachi. Sarah had revealed in an interview sometime ago that she had to enroll in the medical college as a male student.
She told the interviewer that her class-fellows knew about her identity though it was never formally declared. She said that her parents insisted that she pose as a male.
She said, “They insisted that I pose as a boy throughout my life despite knowing that I am not. They said that I am selfish and not considering the respect that the family would lose after I declare myself a transgender person. Every transgender person has to face the same situation.”
She said in the interview before completion of her MBBS degree, “My family warned me that they would stop paying for my studies if I declared myself a transgender person. Now I will have to arrange my next year’s fee on my own.”
