Babar challenges FSC verdict in transgender case

Former senator Farhatullah Babar has challenged the verdict of the Federal Shariat Court (FSC) that struck down the Transgender (Protection of Rights) Act, 2018 in the name of Islam in May last.

The civil appeal was filed before the Shariat Appellate Bench of the Supreme Court by Babar and Sherkan Malik through Advocate Khawaja Ahmad Hosain.

The appeal contended that the FSC verdict is “discriminatory, illogical, unlawful, unconstitutional and not founded on any sound legal or religious reasoning and is beyond the jurisdiction vested in the Shariat Court by the Constitution”.

The verdict is based on apprehensions instead of the provisions of law and does not identify which injunction of Islam and which verse of the Holy Quran had been violated, it said.

The FSC verdict is more in the nature of a lecture on morality by the two justices rather than a decision based on the court’s jurisdiction, Babar, who is also the president of the PPP human rights cell, contended.