Public sector job quota fixed for transgender folks in Pakistan  

A delegation of transgender leaders with Sindh Police Chief Syed Kaleem Imam in April

By Nasir Aijaz
AsiaN Representative

Karachi:  The provincial government of Sindh on Wednesday announced a fixed five per cent quota to employ transgender folks in all government departments.

Sindh Chief Minister’s Adviser on Information Senator Murtaza Wahab confirmed the news in a post on social media.

“Sindh Cabinet has decided today that a five per cent quota shall be fixed for transgender in all government departments,” Wahab said on Twitter.

Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah said he wanted to bring transgender people into the mainstream, he added.

About a month back, the Sindh chief minister had said the transgender people were the most neglected and ignored members of the society and that the government must allocate a reasonable quota for the recruitment of transgender people in all government departments, including the police.

He had directed the chief secretary to prepare a working paper for the cabinet so that jobs could be allocated for transgender people and urged NGOs and other organizations working for the welfare of transgender people to educate them and bring them in government service.

Earlier this year, Inspector-General of the Sindh Police Syed Kaleem Imam had announced to employ transgender folks in the force. According to him, five percent job quota will be offered to transgender folks.

“We will make them part of Sindh police,” Imam said. “They are good God-gifted people. Citizens like us. We should stand by them.”

In a major step forward in 2009, the Supreme Court of Pakistan had ruled that transgender people could receive national identity cards as a “third sex” and in 2017, the government issued its first passport with a transgender category.

Transgender people staging demo for the rights

In Karachi, the capital city of Sindh, a private Café named as ‘Café Wagera’ had also started employing the transgender folks.

Pakistan Transgender Empowerment Association and some other non-government organizations are working in Pakistan for the rights of transgender folks and several events had been organized over the years for awareness and their rights. The transgender folks’ association had also been holding demonstrations for health facilities, education, jobs and other rights equal to other segments of society in Pakistan and as a result, some of the educated transgender people have been employed in government departments in other provinces of the country.

According to Bindya Rana, leader of the Karachi-based transgender rights group, roughly there are 300,000 transgender people across Pakistan. However other reports suggest that country’s total population of transgender people reported in the sixth Population and Housing Census is 10,418. Punjab province has 64.4 per cent of the country’s transgender population with 6,709 people registered in the category

The second highest population of transgender people is in Sindh — 2,527 or 24pc while Khyber Pakhtunkhwa houses 913 transgender people and Balochistan 109.

In the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, the population of transgender people is 27 and in Islamabad 133. Most of the transgender people could be seen begging on roads or earning livelihood by visiting door to door for being illiterate. взять займ на карту срочно без отказа