PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has recorded 267 cases of violence against transgender persons in the last five years but only one led to a conviction, show documents.

Seventeen cases of violence against transgender persons were registered by the province’s police in 2019, 40 in 2020, 61 in 2021, 88 in 2022 and 61 in 2023, according to the documents, which are available with Dawn.

The issue came under discussion in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly during the August 22 session after the lawmakers were told about the conviction of the accused in just one of the 267 such cases.

PML-N’s Sobia Shahid criticised the government for its failure to address the problem.

Documents show KP recorded 267 such cases in five years but only one accused was convicted

“Several meetings were held to address the rising incidence of violence against transgender persons, but the numbers continue to rise,” she complained.

She questioned the government’s claim of taking corrective measures.

Senior criminal justice lawyer Shafiq Hussain Gigyani told Dawn that inadequate investigation was one of the reasons for the acquittal of the accused in such cases.

He said that though 60 per cent of the cases of violence against transgender persons were closed after out-of-court settlements between victims and the accused, convictions depended on proper police investigations.

“Courts have nothing to do with convictions, which depend on the quality of case investigation as well as prosecution,” he insisted.

Mr Gigyani called for the inclusion of technical experts in the police’s investigation wing.

“Judges decide cases on the basis of available evidence. If the case is poorly investigated, the accused benefit,” he said.

Rights activist Qamar Naseem said not only the inadequate police investigation led to the acquittal of most accused in such cases of violence but the lack of victims’ interest in pursuing their complaints was also to blame.

“If somebody believes that registration of an FIR is enough to convict an accused, it’s not true,” he told Dawn.

Mr Naseem added that less than five per cent of such cases were pursued by the victims.

He claimed that transgender persons “always” refused to cooperate with police and hardly visited police stations to record their statements or produce evidence in case of violence. “Fear is another factor. Sometimes, violence victims agree to out-of-court settlements either due to pressure or for money,” he said.

The rights activists also said that the cases were only registered when transgender persons staged street protests and accused police of deliberately registering weak cases, which always gave the accused a chance to obtain relief from courts easily.

He insisted that police delayed registration of such cases, giving space to the accused for a patch-up with the victims of violence, and registered cases on the directions of their senior officials.

When contacted, Peshawar SSP (investigation) Sahibzada Sajjad rejected claims about poor police investigation into violence against transgender persons.

He said a case was called poorly probed only if the investigators failed to collect the evidence of violence, record the statements of victims or supervise the case properly.

“Mostly, such cases are based on false claims,” he told Dawn.

The SSP insisted that witnesses often told a lie, while legal experts, too, didn’t look into the merits of the cases but charged the victims.

He said that punitive action was always taken against investigation officers, who didn’t examine such cases properly or facilitate court bail for the accused.

Published in Dawn, August 14th, 2024