ISLAMABAD: In the past three years, around 28,723 people in Pakistan have changed their genders. This was revealed during Senate’s proceedings Wednesday.
A query was submitted by Jamat-e-Islami senator Mushtaq Ahmed seeking details of the applications received by NADRA to issue gender reassignment certificates. He also asked for details of gender reassignment cases during the said period.
Replying to the query, Minister of Interior Shiekh Rasheed said that NADRA doesn’t issue gender reassignment certificates to people who have changed their genders.
He, however, gave detail of gender reassignment cases between July 2018 to June 2021.
According to the report submitted by the interior minister, 28,773 people got their gender reassigned. Out of them, 16,530 males changed their gender to female and 12, 154 females changed their gender to become male.
Nine males changed their gender to become transgender while 21 transgender become male through gender reassignment. Nine transgenders also changed their gender to female.
“16.4 million women without an identity card in the country”
Replying to a separate query, regarding the issuance of the national identity card (NIC) to women, the interior minister said that more than 16 million women in Pakistan don’t have identity cards yet.
In his reply, he said that the total women population – eligible for NIC– in the country, according to the 2017 census, is 10,13,44,632. NADRA has been able to register 8,36,23,553 women.
He said that to expedite the process of issuing identity cards to women, the Authority has taken several steps. New women applicants are being issued the NIC free of charge, while the Authority has increased the number of women facilitation centers all over the country.
