Pakistan PM launches healthcare program for transgender community, promises equal opportunities

Geo.tv
Tue, 31 Dec 2019 19:25 UTC

© AFP PHOTO / Asif HASSAN

Pakistani transgenders rally to mark World Aids Day

Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday launched a healthcare programme for the transgender community of Pakistan, stressing on the "need to correct the toxic views we hold" about trans people.

Addressing a ceremony here in the federal capital, the prime minister said: "We will take responsibility and extend this health card and insurance facility to the entire transgender community.

"This government is accepting the transgender community — something that the previous governments had not done unfortunately."

The PM said his government found it difficult to fulfil the promises they had made to the public earlier due to the difficulties the administration inherited from former regimes.

"We have not been able to provide the promised welfare system yet but, despite the difficult economic situations, we have decided to extend the health card facility to the weak and poor sectors of our society," he said.

PM Imran highlighted the importance of the health card scheme, saying it provided a security blanket to the poverty-ridden households and that they would be able to "seek medical treatment at any hospital in their time of need".

The premier said he was well aware of what life-threatening diseases such as cancer could do to poor families, who sometimes had to resort to even selling off their belongings to seek basic healthcare.

"This is why this health card is important because it gives confidence to the poor," he added.

The PM assailed former governments for "pretending that the transgender communities do not even exist" and treating them like "non-persons".

"We will give you complete protection in the society and abolish the unfortunate practices even," he added.

Comment:

Imran Khan promises COMPLETE PROTECTION for trans people in Muslim-majority Pakistan

At the risk of stirring a massive backlash from devout fundamentalists, Pakistani PM Imran Khan has promised to protect transgender people and incorporate them into local welfare programs.
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While Khan's promises may not go down well in Pakistan, which has the second-largest Muslim population in the world, the trend is not entirely new. Last year, the country's parliament made history by passing the Transgender Person Act, which allowed Pakistanis to self-identify as male, female, both or neither. Under the law, they may also have their gender identity stated on national IDs, driver licenses and education diplomas.
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It also prohibits employers and public officials from discriminating against LGBT people. Nevertheless, the country still has a penal code that provides for life imprisonment for "carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal."

The transgender community was counted in the 2017 nationwide census for the first time in Pakistan's history, recording 10,418 in a population of about 207 million.