The transgender community staged a protest against the Punjab police behaviour and demanded that the high-ups take action against Wah Cantt police.
Haripur Shemale Association President Saima Shaukat, speaking at a press conference held on Tuesday, lamented that neither the society nor their families are ready to accept them. The lockdown had made it difficult for them to have three meals a day, she added.
She said transgender people were no longer invited to wedding functions or private parties, which has added to the economic woes of their community. She demanded that society give respect to the transgender community. The former chief justice had issued orders that their rights be given to them, but the government had chosen to ignore them.
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Shaukat said that she had been fighting for the rights of eunuchs in Haripur for a decade. The twice-elected councillor said in a sad tone that the transgender community had been compelled to beg. She said that they were surviving on charity given by different factory owners during Ramazan.
She condemned Wah Cantt police for excesses against transgenders, adding the Haripur DPO had taken notice of the incident in which police personnel who assaulted the community members in an intoxicated condition. “Wah Cantt police allegedly beat their community members and also snatched cellphone and cash from them.”
Transgender Alliance President Saba Gul said that she had come to Haripur to express solidarity with community members. “Our community in Punjab distributed ration to 10,000 needy families and arranged the marriage of over 200 orphans.”
Gul said the alliance had opened four free dispensaries on a self-help basis for free treatment of transgenders. However, she lamented that no government official had ever bothered to contact them.
Shemale Association’s general secretary in Haripur said that the police have always committed injustices against their community. She added she was MBA in finance but no one had given her a job. She asked why the police bothered them when they were registered, citizens.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 11th, 2021.
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