ISLAMABAD: After trying her luck on an Okara seat in the 2018 polls, transgender rights activist Nayyab Ali is vying for a National Assembly seat from Islamabad’s constituencies of NA-46 and NA-47, where she is facing some prominent contestants.

Ms Ali is contesting elections as an independent candidate for the first time from the federal capital, intending to make her mark and highlight the existence of her community in society. “I strongly oppose the query that I am set to lose the elections – this is the typical mindset that I do not like to respond to,” she said.

Before Nayyab Ali, Nadeem Kashish, whose name on the electoral rolls was Nadeemur Zafar, contested the 2018 elections from NA-53, which is NA-47 in the upcoming elections. She too contested the elections as an independent candidate to highlight the problems faced by transgender people in society.

“We are here – we have some natural defect like some people have heart, hearing, or speech problems by birth,” Ms Kashish said adding, “But like others, we are the citizens of this country and belong to the respective religion.”

She said it was essential that the political parties and the society in general should take trans people “seriously” as part of the society. In the last elections, she obtained only 22 votes, and one of the reasons was that most of the trans people do not have their votes registered, nor do they have any interest in the election process.

Nayyab Ali, on the other hand, has some detractors in the community as well. One of them, Almas Bobby, challenged her nomination papers, but the returning officers rejected her objections. Almas Bobby said Nayyab Ali’s campaign had nothing to do with the issues faced by the community. “Her election symbol too gives a non-serious impression about our community, she should have taken something different than chili pepper,” she commented.

The trans people Dawn talked to said that they should be part of the political process and that the political parties needed to give more space to trans people and non-Muslim minorities to take along all the segments of society.

Issue of CNIC

Aliza, who lives in Rawalpindi and begs for a living, is well aware of political dynamics, even the general manifestoes of key political parties. “I have no vote because I have no CNIC or Form-B. I was abandoned at a very early age and now live with my community in Pindora,” she said, adding, “We move around on the streets every day. Sometimes, we are invited to [dance] functions by politicians as well, so we know very well about current affairs,” she said. Aliza complained people who were supposed to grant rights to the transgender community were inviting them to dance for them. She added that the trans community leaders should raise such issues. “Even our leaders do not want us to get a settled life in society as if we start getting educations and CNICs, then who will be begging on the streets and doing that dancing,” she added.

Meanwhile, sources in the National Database Registration Authority (Nadra) confirmed that the system of registering trans people was ‘complicated’ and it was being done upon the ‘guarantees’ from their community leaders (guru). “There are around 3,000 registered trans people with Nadra who have the ‘X’ gender in their CNIC,” sources added.

Meanwhile, the National Socio-Economic Register (NSER) survey carried out by the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) highlighted that the total number of transgender persons in Pakistan was 53,800.

According to Reem Sharif, a transgender rights activist, the issue of registration of trans people in Nadra had to be resolved and more ID cards needed to be issued so they could become voters and actively participate in politics.

Published in Dawn, January 21st, 2024