Transgender Persons Act: Senate body forwards draft amendments to CII

ISLAMABAD: The Senate body on human rights forwarded draft amendments in the Transgender Persons Act to the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII), ARY News reported on Friday.

The draft amendments presented by Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Senator Mushtaq Ahmed Khan were forwarded to the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) by the Senate body on human rights.

The Senate Standing Committee on Human Rights stated that an opinion was sought from the CII regarding the amendments as some provisions of the transgender bill were declared to be in contradiction with the Islamic principles of heredity.

READ: TRANSGENDER BILL: LAW MINISTER REJECTS ‘BASELESS PROPAGANDA’

The Senate body clarified that no law could be passed in violation of the Islamic principles. The committee will also send other amendments regarding the transgender bill to the CII.

Earlier, Senator Mushtaq Ahmed of Jamat-e-Islami (JI) had filed a petition in the Federal Shariat Court against the Transgender Rights Bill 2018, claiming it’s in contradiction with the Islamic principles of heredity.

The JI leader had argued that the bill would cause complications in Islamic heredity rules.

The petition, filed by the JI senator, would be persecuted by Lawyer Imran Shafique Advocate. Senate’s Human Rights Committee had debated the bill in its September 5 session.

READ: JI TURNS TO FEDERAL SHARIAT COURT AGAINST ‘TRANSGENDER RIGHTS BILL 2018’

In the session, the JI leader suggested that if someone files a gender change request in NADRA, they must undergo a medical test first. The bill has given individuals the right to change their gender identity, 30,000 people have applied to NADRA to change their gender, the JI senator said.

The authority to identify one’s gender should be with the medical board and not with the individual, Mushtaq Ahmed said.

The JI senator claimed that the bill is a contradiction with Islamic hereditary principles. Chairman Federal Shariat Court inquired whether the Islamic Ideology Council was consulted when passing the law. The senator said that the council was not consulted.

The Human Rights Committee had opposed the amends presented by the senator, saying the matter is sub-judice and should not be tampered with.