It is a bitter fact that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) is one of the provinces of Pakistan which struggles with a high ratio of violence against the transgender people.
Despite extensive legislations by the provincial assembly for the protection of Transgender people the violence against them recorded a sharp increase.
The murder of two transgender persons in Peshawar and Swabi recently put the efforts of the legislatures to a new test for curbing the increasing violence against this community.
According to the details available with the VoKP about 70 transgender people have been murdered in KP since 2015.
The culprits in most of these cases either never been caught or left scot-free as witnessed by the fact that only one offender has been taken to task so far.
Another dilemma of the transgender community is discriminatory attitude and treatment meted out to them by none other than their own family members.
The discrimination starts from home and gradually the society takes transgender persons for granted as well.
While talking to VoKP, Farzana Jan Chief of the Transgender Community KP said that, “The transgender community in the Pashtun society is the most vulnerable group of people who are facing discrimination and violence in every department of the province; even in the educational institutes and hospitals”, says Farzana Jan who is Chief of the Transgender Community of KP.
Farzana Jan recalled that back in 2019 when Alisha a transgender was shot multiple times and they rushed her to the hospital, the doctors present on the occasion were in no mood to treat her eventually Alisha lost her life due to extensive bleeding.
The provincial government has allocated a total of Rs 321 million for the welfare of the transgender people since 2017 but not a single penny has been utilised in this regard.
While talking to the VoKP a social rights activist Taimur Kamal said that the transgender people around the province were facing many issues including sexual harassment, sexual assault, rape, physical torture, partner violence and etc; however, neither the police nor the government is serious to take measures for their protection.
He stated that the government has allocated millions of rupees for the welfare of transgender community but practical utilisation of this amount is not yet materialised.
Meanwhile, commenting on the role and progress of KP Police, Muhammad Ilyas spokesperson for Peshawar police said that Police is striving hard to protect the transgender community.
While answering a question he said that in many cases of violence or murder the victims make some deal with the culprits and thus get acquitted by the court.
The society at large has the responsibility to play role in protecting the transgender people; the most vulnerable community.
At the government level there is dire need for allocation of adequate funds for protection of transgender community and timely utilisation of the same.
