Only 18% of trans people recorded by NADRA

Wide gap between actual transgender population and their registration

ISLAMABAD: A wide disparity has been observed in Pakistan’s actual transgender population and their registration as ‘third sex’ with the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA). The gap is almost a little over 81 per cent.

If verified government statistics are relied upon then the exact transgender population in the country stands at 10,418, according to the Census 2017 results.

However, the exclusive record on transgender population obtained by The Express Tribune from NADRA says only 1,882 transgender persons are registered with it correctly reflecting their sex on their national identity document.

To be precise the gap between the government released statistics and the actual registration is 81.94 per cent – or to say only 18.06 per cent of the transgender population is registered with country’s database authority under third sex category.



According to NADRA’s data, out of 1,882 registered transgender; some 1,177 are registered as eunuch male, 569 as eunuch female and 136 as neutral or unisex.

Identity document with exact particulars of its bearer including sex can help ensure access to special privileges categorised under gender specification, this also includes employment. As in recent past many non-governmental organisations and a few autonomous institutions including NADRA provided job opportunities for the transgender persons.

But it would not be possible for a trans-person to avail such an opportunity, although very limited, without an identity document having a specific mention of his/her sex on it.



Until recently Pakistan did not have any concept of officially issuing identity cards mentioning the third gender. It was in 2011 when for the first time the Supreme Court ordered authorities to issue identity cards to transgender persons by specifically mentioning their sex. A policy was also devised by NADRA following the apex court’s directions and started issuing identity cards to them.

Initially, NADRA linked issuance of such cards with medical board examination reports but later this mandatory requirement was also abolished on the direction of the court. Today, any transgender can register themselves with the authority without any prerequisite documentation.

President She-male Rights Association Almas Bobi, while talking to The Express Tribune, claimed that despite apex court orders it’s the ‘pathetic approach’ of database authority officials that made the processing of transgender persons national identity cards a cumbersome procedure and given this situation transgender usually do not prefer to get gender-specific ID card.

She said recently majority of transgenders, who were unaware of their actual parents, approached NADRA for issuance of identity card with a request to mention name of their custodian or ‘guru’ in the father’s name column.



“They had approached NADRA with that request after Lahore High Court ordered database authority to mention ‘guru’ name as father of transgender person in case he/she does not know parents name. But such requests were rejected by NADRA saying it does not have any such policy,” Bobi claimed.

The activist was of the opinion that that attitude has given rise among transgender community not to register themselves.

On the other hand, a senior NADRA official rebutted the claims saying following LHC’s directions the authority formulated a policy for transgender registration even if they don’t know name of their actual parents and that too without any specific documentation. He informed that that policy had been in place since July 2017.

“Obtaining an identity card for the third gender is as easy as it is for a male or a female,” he stated.

The NADRA official was of the opinion that few years ago when NADRA started processing cards of transgender on the direction of Supreme Court it found majority of transgender persons were already registered with the database as ‘males’.

“Some of them were even married and had children but they wanted another identity card which mentioned their third sex,” he informed. The official added that NADRA could not provide two identity cards to one individual. He said such transgender persons have been asked to first surrender/cancel their first identity card to process their second identity card with the changed sex.