KARACHI: The Coalition for Inclusive Pakistan (CIP) strongly condemns the recent acts of violence against transgender persons and urges the Federal and Provincial governments to ensure their fundamental rights, including the right to life and liberty.
According to reports, the bodies of three transgender individuals were discovered in Memon Goth on Sunday. Earlier, on Thursday, another transgender person suffered life-threatening injuries in a different attack in Karachi.
In another incident, community elders in Swabi reportedly declared that all transgender persons would be expelled from the district. These events represent serious human rights violations and highlight the extreme vulnerabilities and discrimination faced by the transgender community in Pakistan.
The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2018, guarantees every transgender person the right to life, dignity, and security. These repeated incidents, however, reveal serious gaps in the government’s enforcement of these legal protections. Moreover, the provincial legislatures should also enact similar legislation for the protection of transgender persons in the provinces.
CIP urgently calls on the Sindh Government, Sindh Police, and Federal and Sindh Commissions on Human Rights to take immediate, decisive, and visible action. This includes launching a swift and transparent investigation into these attacks, ensuring the prompt arrest and prosecution of the perpetrators, and implementing concrete measures to guarantee the safety of transgender persons in public spaces.
Furthermore, CIP emphasizes that the Federal and Provincial Human Rights Commissions must hold relevant authorities accountable for falling short to protect all citizens equally under the Constitution. “The transgender community are equal citizens of Pakistan. Their safety and protection are not optional – they are a constitutional and moral imperative.”
Newspakistan.tv
