PESHAWAR: Peshawar High Court summoned provincial law secretary in a plea related to rights of transgender persons after it was informed about objections raised by law department over the proposed Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Protection and Welfare Policy on Transgender and Intersex Persons, 2025.

A bench consisting of Justice Sahibzada Asadullah and Justice Dr Khurshid Iqbal fixed Dec 3 for next hearing of the petition, challenging alleged harassment of transgender persons in the province by police including backing of hate campaign and protests against them and attempting their expulsion from different districts.

The bench directed that the law secretary should appear in person to inform the court of the situation.

During previous hearing on Nov 04, the bench had included the provincial social welfare department as respondent in the petition and directed it to submit a comprehensive report addressing three major points. The points include present capacity and institutional strength of the department; the steps currently undertaken for transgender welfare; and policies timelines and action plans formulated for their rehabilitation, empowerment and integration into mainstream society.

PHC informed about law dept’s objections to proposed policy on the subject

The petition is jointly filed by president of TransAction Alliance, Farzana Riaz, and 25 other transgender persons, challenging certain actions of police as well as that of different organisations and people.

The petitioners have requested the court to declare as illegal and unconstitutional the actions of different respondents including district police officers of Swabi, Dera Ismail Khan, Bannu, Buner, Malakand and Nowshera.

Advocate Imran Khan appeared for the petitioners whereas the additional advocate general, Aqil Hussain, and the assistant attorney general, Bilal Ahmad Durrani, represented provincial and federal governments, respectively.

A deputy secretary (administration) of social welfare department, Hafiz Abdul Jalil, appeared along with a prominent human rights activist Qamar Naseem, who has played key role in drafting and preparation of the proposed policy.

The deputy secretary submitted a communication from law department through which certain restrictions were made on the competence of social welfare department to proceed in the matter related to rehabilitation of transgender persons.

The bench was informed that due to those limitations, further progress couldn’t be made at that stage, resulting in postponement of proceedings on the proposed policy.

In the communication of the law department, submitted to the court, the department raised multiple objections to the proposed policy and also stated that the definition of a ‘transgender person’ in the draft of the proposed policy appeared to be against the injunctions of Islam, the Constitution and laws of Pakistan.

The letter states that Islam through Quranic injunctions recognised only two biological sexes i.e. male and female, created by Almighty Allah.

The letter suggested that the matter may be examined at law department level in light of legal and factual position and also be taken up, in the first instance, with Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) in terms of Article 227 read with 230 of the Constitution of Pakistan for examination and opinion thereon on the touchstone of Islamic tenets as enunciated in the Holy Quran and Sunnah.

Interestingly, the law department has also referred to the policy of US President Donald Trump in support of its contention.

It stated: “The executive order issued by the president of the United States of America concerning transgender persons, which reversed federal protections based on gender identity in favour of recognising biological sex, illustrates that the concept of a self-declared third gender remains globally contested and politically sensitive.”

The letter said that there was no scientific or medical foundation for a third gender and it (proposed policy) based solely on personal feelings, ignoring biology. “This condition was classified among the psychological disorders under the category of gender dysphoria,” it added.

It stated that in Islam, Allah created humans in only two genders, male and female, and imitating the opposite gender was a sin and a cause for curse.

The petitioners have requested the court to issue guidelines for the protection of the rights of transgender persons including the right to work, reside and participate in cultural/social life without any interference.

Published in Dawn, November 28th, 2025