Transgender rights: NADRA provides 3 gender options on CNIC registration form

Categories include Khansa, male and female; cards to be issued free of cost and through mobile vans.

The National Database and Registration Authority will be providing transgendered community members with three gender categories on the registration form for a computerised national identity card.

The move has been taken in accordance with a Supreme Court verdict of December 2009, said NADRA’s Media Coordinator Furrukh Mushtaq.

The three categories, Mushtaq said, are Khansa, male and female. “Those eunuchs whose parents’ names are known and are attested by a social welfare officer are being provided with CNICs,” he said.

Those community members who have already been provided CNICs are also being registered to vote in the next general elections. “Gurus (patrons) must advise their disciples to acquire identity cards immediately so that they can avail their rights and also register themselves as voters in accordance with the SC’s verdict,” Mushtaq said.

He said that to facilitate the community, NADRA is providing a mobile van service so that eunuchs can register at a location of their choice.

Mushtaq said that cards were being issued free of cost and so far, 164 eunuchs had registered in Lahore.