LAHORE – Thousands of transgender voters could not exercise their right of the franchise in Wednesday’s general elections due to lack of proper sex identification in the computerized national identity cards (CNICs), according to a rights activist.
The country’s 2017 national census put the number of transgender citizens at 10,418, a number that has been widely disputed by members of the community. But the identity cards – with the category of Gender X – were issued only to 127 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
“Pakistan has a large number of transgender people, who are old enough to cast vote, but only 913 were registered in the 2017 census,” Qamar Naseem, a programme coordinator of Blue Veins – a non-profit organization working for the empowerment of transgender in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, told journalists after the polls.
In June 2018, she added, Chief Justice of Pakistan Saqib Nisar had ordered to provide the community with free-of-cost CNICs.
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She also highlighted the social taboos, which forced her community members to keep away from the polling stations. “They avoided to use their right to franchise at men-only booths, because they have been given ‘Male’ sex identity in their CNICs,” she explained.
Moreover, majority of the transgender voters – who are registered under gender ‘X’ – shied away from the polling stations in their respective places of birth to avoid facing their relatives.
Naseem also criticised the political leadership for not giving due consideration to this issue, thus depriving thousands of this segment of their right to vote.
According to the activist, the Blue Veins had also filed a writ petition in this regard with the Peshawar High Court which had issued notices to the National Database Registration Authority but to no avail.
