Eunuch’s CNICs: Committees to be formed in Sargodha district to step up registration

The committee will collect data, assist eunuchs with paperwork.

SARGODHA:

Sargodha division administration has started registration of eunuchs for issuance of computerised national identity cards and inclusion of their names in electoral rolls.

Talking to The Express Tribune, National Database Regulation Authority Sahiwal centre in-charge Bilal Ahmed Saleem said eunuchs needed to approach NADRA centres in their areas so that processing of their applications could start without delay. He said a separate category called shemale had been created in the gender column of the registration forms in compliance with the Supreme Court of Pakistan verdict.

Sargodha Commissioner Shaukat Ali had directed the district coordination officers of Sargodha, Mianwali, Bhakkar and Khushab districts on Wednesday to form four-member committees to oversee the registration process. Additional district collectors will head these committees. These committees will have a representative each from the NADRA, the Election Commission of Pakistan and the eunuch community. The district officer (social welfare) will also serve on the committee.

The commissioner said the committee would be responsible for organising a meeting of representatives of the eunuchs before January 20 to take them on board with regards to the registration process.

He said other tasks of the committee would include coordination with eunuchs for forwarding their data to the NADRA officials. The committee will also be responsible for assisting the eunuchs with the registration process and for providing their data to the Social Welfare Department.

Talking to The Tribune in Sahiwal tehsil, eunuchs said they were thankful to the chief justice for recognising their problem and giving them an identity. Eunuchs Pooja, Nazi, Goshi, Komal and Langi said their families had deprived them of their inheritance rights. “We could not claim our inheritance because we did not have  CNICs to support the claim,” they said. They hoped that with an identity card and a right to vote discrimination against eunuchs in the society would end.

So far, nine of 274 eunuchs whose record is available with the Sargodha division administration have been registered for the CNICs and electoral rolls. Seven of them are based  in Sargodha district and two in Mianwali. There are believed to be 186 eunuchs in Sargodha, 37 in Mianwali, 30 in Khushab and 21 in Bhakkar.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 13^th, 2012.