Constitutional and Legal Guarantees for Transgender in Pakistan: Reforms and Failures in Law

Abstract

Transgender individuals in Pakistan have been excluded from political and economic systems. In 2009, the Supreme Court of Pakistan for the first time recognised the unique gender identity of transgender individuals. This Order initiated reforms for the protection of the rights of transgender individuals and compelled various government departments to devise guidelines for the issuance of National Identification Cards (NICs) to all transgender individuals and created a legal framework for their full and equal participation in society. This chapter will analyse the effectiveness of this reform project in relation to other legal rules and entrenched social norms. It will start with an analysis of the historical discriminatory laws which led to a marginalisation of transgender individuals, and evaluate whether the recent developments in law, particularly the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act 2018, are sufficient to protect the rights of transgender in Pakistan.