K-P failed to release funds for transgenders, claims NGO

Lawmaker pledges resolution and laws on the issue will be devised soon

PESHAWAR: A non-governmental organisation claimed that the provincial government had failed to release any money it had allocated for the welfare of the transgender community in the previous budget.

This was stated by Blue Veins Coordinator Qamar Naseem in a seminar on 'Sensitization Session with Stakeholders on Transgender Person Healthcare' held at a hotel in Peshawar on Wednesday.

Naseem said that in the last fiscal year 2018-19, the government had allocated a sum of Rs20 million. But this money, he claimed was not utilised and the budget lapsed with the beginning of the new fiscal year 2019-20.

The coordinator went on to state that there was no dedicated health facility available for people who are transgender in the hospitals of the province.

He added that whenever any mishap takes place, people who are transgenders are not admitted to the wards.

By contrast, Naseem pointed out that that Punjab government has already spent Rs20 million for the welfare of people who are transgender.

HIV Control Programme Project Director Dr Saleem said that a larger proportion of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) patients are people who are transgender. He went on to claim that they are also a source of transmitting the virus.

MPA Dr Sumaira Shams said that the provincial government will soon table a resolution in the provincial assembly apart from introducing laws to provide all facilities to the transgender community like regular people.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 25^th, 2019.