ISLAMABAD: Speakers at a provincial consultation workshop on Tuesday underlined the need for an all-inclusive response of the transgender community during relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction efforts to help minimise the suffering of flood victims during the post-flood era.

They expressed these views during a multi-stakeholders provincial consultation on ‘Developing Action Plan for Transgender Inclusive Flood Response’, organised jointly by the National Commission for Human Rights (NCHR), Peace and Justice Network (PJN) and USAID.

Speakers included members of provincial assembly Ayesha Banu and Aasia Khattak, NCHR Commissioner Tariq Javed, director general of Human Rights Department (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) Dr Saeed Khan, Provincial Ombudsperson Rakhshanda Bano, Sadiq Khan of Provincial Disaster Management Authority, PJM technical expert Nayab Ali, Social Welfare Officer Mehnaz and provincial president of the transgender community Farzana.

Farzana said full support and assistance of members of the transgender community would be given to the government during flood mitigation programmes.

She said the devastation caused by last year’s flood were huge and all segments of society needed to work together by accelerating relief efforts and extending full support to the government for an inclusive flood response mechanism as hundreds of thousands of flood victims were still looking for help and assistance in Pakistan.

Dr Saeed Khan said deputy commissioners of all 35 districts of KP were assigned special powers of human rights officers with the authority to dispose of all human rights related applications within 30 days in their respective domains.

He said efforts were being made to include representatives of vulnerable segments of society including persons with disabilities, minorities, transgender persons and the under privileged in district human rights committees to address issues on the spot.

Published in Dawn, January 18th, 2023