PHC orders Nadra to unblock identity card of transgender person.

PESHAWAR -- The Peshawar High Court has ordered the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) to unblock Computerised National Identity Card (CNIC) of a transgender person.

The court observed that a transgender had the right to freedom of expression and opinion regardless of his sexual orientation or gender identity.

A bench consisting of PHC Chief Justice Musarrat Hilali and Justice Shakeel Ahmad accepted a petition filed by a transgender person Shah Fahad alias Katrina against blocking of his CNIC on the orders of an additional district and sessions judge issued on March 4, 2019 and April 19, 2019.

The petitioner was fraudulently mentioned as surety for accused persons in two criminal cases when they were released on bail. When the accused started absconding, the court had issued non-bailable arrest warrants of the petitioner with the direction to Nadra to block his CNIC.

Rules people have rights regardless of their sexual orientation

Advocate Umair Iqbal appeared for the petitioner and said that traumatic experiences were faced by members of the transgender community. He argued that every member of that community including the petitioner had legal rights to be treated in accordance with law in terms of Article 4 of the Constitution and to espouse and determine their identity.

He said that since transgender persons were neither treated as male or female, nor given the status of third gender, they were being deprived of many rights and privileges, which other persons were enjoying as citizens of the country.

About the case of his client, the counsel stated that in a narcotics case in 2014 bail was granted to a woman accused and in her surety bonds the name of the petitioner was mentioned by someone and thus he was shown as one of the sureties. Subsequently, during inquiry, the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) found the signature of the petitioner on the surety bonds as forged and he was absolved of the liability as surety by the court.

However, the petitioner was shocked when he learnt about two FIRs wherein he was shown as surety of two other accused persons, who had been absconding, and the additional sessions judge had ordered blocking his CNIC through the two impugned orders.

Setting aside the impugned orders, the bench directed the presiding officers of subordinate courts across the province that before attesting the bail bonds/surety bonds they must inquire about the identity of the sureties and Nadra should provide...