• A citizen, Humayun Khan, filed the petition through a counsel.
• He said the bill in question had not been approved by the Islamic Ideology Council before its presentation in the assembly.
• He alleged that the bill was against the Islamic values, which was a clear violation of the basic structure of the Constitution of Pakistan.

LAHORE: A sessions court on Saturday issued a notice to police on a petition seeking registration of a criminal case against National Assembly’s former speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq for getting passed a bill about the rights of transgender persons.

A citizen, Humayun Khan, filed the petition through a counsel pleading that the bill passed by the National Assembly hurt religious sentiments of a large section of the country’s population. He said the bill in question had not been approved by the Islamic Ideology Council before its presentation in the assembly.

The petitioner further stated that the 2018 session of the National Assembly presided over by the then speaker Sadiq passed the bill without a meaningful consultation and debate on it. He alleged that the bill was against the Islamic values, which was a clear violation of the basic structure of the Constitution of Pakistan.

He contended that an application was filed with the police for registration of an FIR against the former speaker but no action had been taken in accordance with the law.

Additional District & Sessions Judge Mudassir Omar Bodla sought comments from the additional district complaint officer, the SP Investigation of the division concerned, on the petition by September 30. The petitioner also arrayed CCPO Lahore as respondent in the petition.

On September 22, Law Minister Azam Nazir Tarar had rejected the “baseless propaganda” regarding the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill.

Addressing a joint news conference, along with Prime Minister’s Advisor Qamar Zaman Kaira, in Islamabad, he had said it was not a new law as it was enacted in 2018.

He had said all the political parties, including Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N), Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf (PTI), and others, approved this law in 2018. He had said Senator Mushtaq Ahmed Khan of Jamaat-e-Islami had proposed an amendment in the law to prevent its misuse.

On September 19, Prime Minister’s Special Representative for Interfaith Harmony and Middle East Hafiz Muhammad Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi had said the Transgender Rights Bill 2018 should be forwarded to the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) for review.

Ashrafi, who is also the Chairman of Pakistan Ulema Council, had said all religious organisations had apprehensions on the certain provisions of the bill and they should be addressed by taking the CII on board as per existing mechanism.

He had said Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl’s Senator Maulna Atta-ur-Rehman, Jamaat-e-Islami Senator Mushtaq Ahmed and others had expressed their reservations on the bill.

He had said that the best way to deal with the issue was to send the aforesaid bill to the CII and it would present its recommendations to remove the clauses which were in contradiction to the Shariah.