Sirajul Haq asks govt to take back the transgender law or get ready to face protest movement

LAHORE, Sep 30 (SABAH): Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan Emir Sirajul Haq has asked the government to take back the transgender law or get ready to face protest movement.

“We give one week to the government to accept the transgender amendment act proposed by the JI Senator Mushtaq Ahmad Khan,” Sirajul Haq said while addressing a press conference at Mansoorah on Friday.

Earlier, he presided over a consultative meeting of the leaders of different religious parties, scholars, lawyers and heads of seminaries on the trans law. Rejecting the law, the participants decided to hold a protest demonstration at The Mall on next Friday.

Sirajul Haq said the bill was against the Quran and Sunnah and the constitution of Pakistan. It had been passed in a hurry on last days of the PML-N government in 2018 without consultation, he said, clarifying the JI had since then opposing the law which was a conspiracy to attack the Islamic norms of Pakistan society. He said the agents of western powers and secular lobbies were aimed at damaging the ideological basis of the country. These powers, he said, had earlier destroyed the national economy under a plot. The three ruling parties, he said, were always on board whenever the western lobbies proposed any agenda. The FATF-backed laws were also unanimously adopted by the PTI, the PML-N and the PPP, authorizing the IMF to impose decisions on key strategic issues and policy making matters. Domestic Violence Law, he added, passed in PTI tenure was also an attack on family system.

He clarified the JI could never even think to oppose the rights of transgenders rather it wanted they would be provided all rights.

Instead of providing them rights, he said, the law in question was aimed at spreading the culture of vulgarity in the society.

To a question, he said the JUI-F head Maulana Fazlur Rahman had also opposed the trans law. He said he would also contact Maulana Fazl, Professor Sajid Mir, Allama Raja Nasir Abbas and other leaders of religious and political parties on the matter.

JI Vice-Emir Liaqat Baloch, Dr. Farid Paracha, Dr. Mirajul Huda Siddiqui, Secretary General Ameerul Azim, Pir Safdar Gilani, Allama Ibtisam, Hafiz Kazim Raza Naqvi, Maulana Abdurauf, Asif Hameed, JI Secretary Information Qaisar Sharif and other leaders attended the event.