LAHORE, May 28: The Lahore High Court on Monday sentenced a transgender couple to three years in jail on charges of perjury. Announcing the judgment in a jampacked courtroom, Justice Khwaja Mohammad Sharif said: “I am taking a lenient view, (and sentencing the couple) below the maximum prison term because the couple has tendered an unconditional apology through their counsel. They are also fined Rs10,000 each.”

The judge, however, dropped the ‘unnatural offence’ charges brought up against the couple, stating that the same-sex charge did not fulfil legal requirements, a move supported by Additional Advocate-General Hanif Khatana, who assisted the court. The maximum sentence for the charge is life term.

The couple seemed anxious and appeared to be surprised over the judgment. They held each other tightly throughout the court proceedings and also outside the courtroom.

Shumail Raj, 31, had tears in her eyes but controlled herself and said: “We will file an appeal against the decision. We are facing hardships no one should ever undergo. We appeal to Gen Musharraf to intervene and help us.”

“It (the sentence) does not matter. We (still) love each other,” Raj told this correspondent. “We just appeal to everyone to do something for us,” she intervened when a reporter asked her partner Shahzina Tariq, 26. Cousins and childhood friends, they both hail from Faisalabad.

The court ruled that the couple’s petition, affidavits submitted by both of them, marriage certificate and medical report of Shumail Raj proved that they had intentionally made false statements before the court. Ms Shumail would be kept in a women’s lock-up at the Kot Lakhpat Jail while Ms Shahzina would be kept in Faislabad jail, the court ruled.

The court paid no heed to the couple’s lawyer Zahid Husain Bokhari, who kept requesting the court for a token punishment for perjury, arguing that the couple had done it to avoid social pressure. The counsel also argued that the couple’s marriage could not be termed a marriage, and said it was just a case of affection and love. He said the couple, in an attempt to maintain an affectionate relationship, had opted for the ‘marriage’ as the only way around. He requested the court to take a lenient view and forgive the couple.

However, agreeing with the lawyer’s arguments, the court appointed a panel of psychiatrists from the Jinnah Hospital headed by Dr Saad Malik for psychotherapy of Shumail Raj, who might have developed some problems after going through the episode.