LAHORE: Transgender persons will be able to use the name of their gurus as parents in their computerised national identity cards (CNICs), the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) told the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Tuesday.

It also told the court that the CNIC of a transgender person had been renewed while mentioning name of her guru as her parent.

Mian Asia, the transgender, had filed a petition and pleaded through a counsel that she was issued a CNIC in 2004 where the name of her guru, Muhammad Yousaf, who died in 2005, was written as her parent.

Advocate Mehtab Chughtai told the court the identity card of the petitioner expired in 2011 and she visited the Nadra office concerned for its renewal with the same family details. He said the petitioner also provided the death certificate of her guru to the Nadra officials but they refused to renew the card of the petitioner with the name of her late guru as parent.

The counsel argued the act of Nadra was discriminatory, based on mala-fide intention and violation of fundamental rights of the petitioner. He asked the court to order Nadra to issue the CNIC to the petitioner as per the previous details.

A report submitted by Nadra to the LHC revealed that the grievance of the petitioner stood addressed as she had been issued a new CNIC as per the previous details.

The report further stated a comprehensive procedure for issuance of the CNIC to the transgender person had been devised which was similar to the registration of orphans with unknown parentage. It said a transgender person would be able to use the name of their gurus as parents and furnish witness of any CNIC. The registration of gurus would be carried out at Nadra headquarters through a module already being used for registration of orphans, the report said.

It further said the CNICs of transgender persons with unknown parentage would be processed by selecting random parents name from the database and registered guru would be the head of applicant (transgender) and would give biometric verification. In light of the Nadra’s report, Justice Shahid Karim disposed of the petition of Mian Asia.

Published in Dawn, September 27th, 2017