ISLAMABAD: After a woman was raped by two armed men in F-9 Park earlier this month, the Islamabad police have linked more than 200 cameras installed at the public park with the database of the Safe City Authority besides increasing the number of officials to patrol the park.

A park manager has been appointed for public safety, said IG Akbar Nasir Khan in a briefing to the Senate Standing Committee on Human Rights during a meeting which was chaired by PTI leader Walid Iqbal.

Meanwhile, the Capital Development Authority (CDA) has allocated a budget of Rs100 million to ensure the safety and security of people in public places across the federal capital. CDA Chairman Noorul Amin Mengal also briefed the committee.

IG Nasir informed the committee that police were investigating the matter and utilising modern technology to apprehend the culprits. He added that Islamabad Police have linked the F-9 Park cameras with Safe City Authority besides increasing the number of patrolling personnel. The CDA chief apprised the Senate panel that a budget of Rs100 million has also been sanctioned to ensure the safety of people in public places.

The chairman of the Senate panel decided that the committee will take up the matter after the culprits are arrested, which, as per the IG, would not be too long.

Senate panel decides to replace ‘Transgender’ in 2018 law with ‘Khunsa’, agrees on medical boardfor ‘gender’ identification

Transgender word to be replaced with Khunsa (Intersex) in Transgender Persons Act, 2018

The Senate body also discussed the different proposed amendments relating to the “Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2018”. Senator Walid Iqbal apprised the committee about the ‘common position’ taken by movers of all six bills which claimed that Islamic law “categorically provides that gender cannot be derived from internal feeling or internal sense of being, but instead may solely be derived from physical appearance, genital attributes, and congenital ambiguities”.

Therefore, the committee unanimously decided to replace the word ‘Transgender’ in the 2018 Act with ‘Khunsa (Intersex)’ and defined ‘Khunsa (Intersex) Person’ as a person who has a mixture of male and female genital features or congenital ambiguities and could be classified as khunsa male, khunsa female and khunsa mushkil.

Moreover, the committee agreed on the constitution of a medical board comprising six experts at the district level, which includes one male general surgeon having the rank of professor, one female gynaecologist, one plastic surgeon, one endocrinologist, and one urologist all having a rank of associate professor and one psychologist preferably having a PhD degree.

The amendment also provides that the medical board can seek the guidance of ‘District Khateeb’ in case any ambiguity arises in matters involving Islamic jurisprudence. Furthermore, the committee maintained that a transperson person shall have to get themself registered with Nadra as per the certification made by the medical board.

After detailed deliberations, the committee deferred the matter until the next meeting because the movers of the amendment bills from PML-N, JI, and JUI-F had to leave the meeting to attend the joint session of parliament.

Published in Dawn, February 14th, 2023