LAHORE: Punjab Chief Secretary Akbar Hussain Durrani ordered on Thursday creation of facilitation centres in all districts of the province to facilitate issuance of computerised national identity cards (CNICs) to transgender persons.

Presiding over a meeting here, he said as per orders of the Supreme Court the process of CNIC issuance to the transgender persons would be made simple and easy.

He said in the light of SC’s order, a monitoring committee at provincial level and implementation committees in the districts had been formed.

He directed the relevant departments to take all possible steps for the well-being of transgender persons and for bringing them in the mainstream. He ordered that an awareness and community mobilisation campaign be launched to speed up the process of registration of transgenders.

The social welfare secretary told the meeting that after the Supreme Court direction 201 cases of CNICs had been referred to the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra). He said establishment of a community centre for transgender people had been approved in the Annual Development Programme (ADP).

The meeting was attended by secretaries of different departments, officers concerned and representatives of transgender persons.

Published in Dawn, June 29th, 2018