Religious groups opposed the transgender rights legislation and gave the federal government until October 7 to rescind it.
According to Sirajul Haq, the leader of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), all religious groups will demonstrate at Lahore’s Shuhada Mosque with a sizable throng if the government does not act seriously.
The JI leader declared that the measure is against the Holy Quran, the Sunnah, and the Pakistani Constitution following a consultative gathering of religious parties in Mansoorah. He described it as being a part of a western agenda and said that all three major parties agreed on the matter. Siraj claimed that while he was not opposed to transgender people’s rights, he was worried that the contentious bill would dismantle the family unit.
An assembly of all religious groups would take place on October 7, according to the JI chief.
He added that the atomic bomb fired by the United States on Japan in 1945 was not as hazardous as the transgender rights bill. He continued by saying that he will discuss the matter with Maulana Fazlur Rehman, Sajid Mir, Allama Nasir Abbas, and other religious figures.
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A government supporter and member of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), filed a lawsuit against the Transgender Protection Act, 2018, on Friday in the Federal Shariat Court (FSC).
The JUI-F stated in the petition that “no law can be enacted in the country against the Quran and Sunnah” and asked that the act be deemed to be against Shariat. The FSC established Monday, October 3 as the date for the preliminary hearing requested by the party.
Fauzia Arshad, a PTI senator, submitted the Transgender Act Amendment Bill 2022, which relates to the protection of transgender people, in the House on September 26. The Chairman of the Senate subsequently turned the bill over to the appropriate Standing Committee.
The Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) high-level conference recently stated that the transgender law may result in new social issues and that various elements of the act as a whole are incompatible with Shariah principles.
In 2018, the National Assembly passed the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, which was just recently implemented. In addition to the right to vote and run for office, the law grants transgender people equal access to education, basic health care, writing their transgender identity on their identity cards and passports, and other rights.
However, some religious organisations believe that this bill is actually an effort to legalise homosexuality in the nation. The bill has also been contested in the Shariat court by Senator Mushtaq Ahmad Khan of the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI).
The leader of the JUI-F, Maulana Fazlur Rahman, has previously stated that the law “is against the teachings” of the Holy Quran and Sunnah and that he will introduce revisions to it in parliament. The Act violates Islamic Sharia, according to Jamaat-e-Islami chairman Sirajul Haq.
Propaganda Against Human Rights
The trans community in Pakistan claimed that misleading information had been spread against the Transgender Protection Act, regretting the fact that labelling individuals who were battling for equal rights for trans persons as homosexuals amounted to treating them cruelly.
Trans persons claim that the 2018 legislation neither specifies any type of sex change nor does it permit ‘unnatural’ sex, despite criticism of the bill from some religious groups who see it as an attempt to protect homosexuality from the law.
Transgender rights campaigner Zanaiah Chaudhry responded to the criticism of the law by saying, “There is no statement in this 11-page act that a guy can marry another male or a woman can marry another woman.