The NADRA has decided to rescind Rule 13(1) of Transgender Act pertaining to change of gender, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

This was informed by the NADRA lawyer to the Federal Shariat Court on Tuesday during the hearing of petitions challenging the Transgender Act, 2018. 

The lawyer assured the court that the National Database and Registration Authority would roll back Rule 31 (1) pertaining to sex change within a month. He told the court that NADRA chief had already signed the order and the matter would be put forward in the next meeting of the board for its approval.

A two-judge bench of the Federal Shariat Court headed by Acting Chief Justice Syed Muhammad Anwar heard a set of petitions filed by Senator Mushtaq Ahmad Khan and others. 

During the hearing, Senator Mushtaq’s lawyer argued that we should look into the matter from the legal and Shariah points of view that if someone could determine his/her own gender. Though the word ‘transgender’ has been used in the Act but no interpretation has been given explaining the word. He said transgender is a person who is endowed with both types of gender. Through this Act, a transgender person is allowed to categorize oneself in whatever gender one feels oneself to be endowed with. 

On the contrary, the lawyer went on to say, that both Quran and Sunnah do not allow anyone to choose his/her sex. Islam categorizes people into men and women with clear signs of their gender while it also determines the intersex very lucidly, he added.

Two transgender people, Nadeem Kashish and Shahana Abbas requested the court to include word “Khinsi’ in their bill. They told the bench that they could not go to perform Hajj in 2017. They said that at first, ‘man’ was written in the sex column of their identity cards. But later, it was changed to ‘X’. 

Senator Mushtaq told the court that he had earlier submitted an amendment to the Transgender Act and now he presented a new bill in the Senate which was sent to the committee for review. .

Hearing this, the court sought the copy of the new bill.

Later, after the court hearing, Senator Mushtaq told media that Jamaat-i-Islami (Islamabad chapter) and Khwajasara community were stood by the government and assured that the government would adopt a legal course in this matter. He said that the Islamic Ideology Council (IIC) termed the Act anti-Shariah and against the teachings of Quran and Sunnah.