Imposters: Complaint filed against two ‘fake’ transgender

Shemale Association chief demands medical examination of accused

MANSEHRA: The local Shemale Association in Mansehra has filed a complaint with the police against two people who are transgender, accusing them of being ‘fake’ and of bringing a bad name to their community.

A medical examination of the two has also been demanded.

Mariya Khan, president of the Shemale Association in Mansehra, in her complaint filed with the City police station, said that Shehzad, alias Angily, and Zakir alias Rani, were not transgender by birth.

She claimed that Shehzad, who hails from the Karmang Shinkiari village, was a male and used to work as an assistant for a local patwari. A few months ago he started presenting himself as a transgender.



On the other hand, Zakir, who hails from the Gari Habibullah town in Mansehra, was also a male and used to work as a baker.

Mariya, in her complaint, stated that she was sure that both were men who were masquerading as transgender to make money.

“They book halls in different hotels for a night where they arrange dance parties daily and cheat the audience,” Mariya claimed while accusing local police of being hand in glove with these ‘self-styled’ transgenders.

She demanded that a medical test of the two should be conducted.

Speaking to The Express Tribune, the chief of the Shemale Association accused the two of only harming the business of people who are genuine transgenders but also of promoting obscenity in society.

“When it [their activities] was brought to my notice, I sent them a message asking them to desist from bringing a bad name to the genuine [transgender] community which is fully dependent on dance parties without violating the ethical codes, but they continued their activities,” Mariya said.

She added that when her efforts failed to stop the duo from carrying out, what she termed was, ‘illegal activity’ she decided to lodge a formal complaint.



However, she lamented that the City police called the two people who are purportedly transgender to the police station and set them free without taking any action on her complaint.

She warned of filing another complaint with the District Police Officer for action against two allegedly fake transgender and even consider going to the court since, she claimed, the two were violating rights of the transgender community.

To a question, Mariya said that the Shemale Association has an extensive process to register new members to the community. Moreover, there were 45 people who had registered as transgender in Mansehra while the number of people registered as transgender in the entire Hazara division was 350. However, these two were not among those.

When approached for comments, the city police denied that Mariya had lodged any complaint against the two transgender.

Despite repeated attempts, the two transgender could not be contacted.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 20^th, 2017.