Islamabad: Authorities across Pakistan`s most populous province of Punjab have started registering transgender persons as voters in line with an order from the Supreme Court, though several thorny issues are impeding the process.

The registration of transgender people, or eunuchs as they are commonly known in the Indian subcontinent, began in cities like Rawalpindi, Lahore and Faisalabad yesterday, with officials from the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) including their names in computerised voters` lists and issuing them computerised national identity cards.
Acting on a petition filed by a civil society activist, the apex court has ordered federal and provincial authorities to safeguard the inheritance rights of transgender people and to register them as voters. Thanks to the court`s directives, several government departments, including NADRA, have set aside some jobs for transgender people.
Special counters have been established across Punjab to ensure the registration of transgender people, whose population in the province is estimated at 13,500.
However, the process was not without hiccups, officials said.
Though a list of 249 transgender people of Rawalpindi district was prepared by the Election Commission, only 17 eunuchs came to the designated office yesterday to enrol their names.
Most of them did not possess computerised national identity cards, which are mandatory for the enrolment of voters, officials said.
In Lahore, the capital of Punjab, at least 45 transgender people were registered as voters. Officials said the Social Welfare Department had set up special counters in all 36 districts of Punjab for the registration process.
When the process got underway in Lahore, the eunuchs staged protests after they found out that NADRA would charge Rs 1,000 for each identity card. Following the protests, authorities cancelled the fees and transgender people lauded Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry.
Officials also faced problems due to two other issues- the gender to be assigned to the eunuchs in their identity cards and the insistence of some of them that the names of their `gurus` be included in the cards instead of the names of their fathers.
According to NADRA, the identity cards will bear the father`s name but some eunuchs refused to accept identity cards that did not include the names of their gurus.
This issue is expected to be settled by the Supreme Court next month.
Though NADRA had originally stated that eunuchs could list their gender as male, female or "khunsa-e-mushkil" on their identity cards, authorities in some parts of Punjab have opted to list them only as females.
Almas Bobby, who heads a eunuchs` association in Rawalpindi, told The Express Tribune that transgender people would inform the Supreme Court next month about the non-registration of names of gurus by NADRA officials.
"Many of us had old identity cards where our sex is mentioned as male and the name of gurus is mentioned in the column for father’s name.
"There are many of our friends who do not want to have the name of their father after they were abandoned in childhood by their families and they were brought up by their gurus," Bobby said.
Officials said transgender people who registered as voters could contest elections at the national and provincial levels.
Rawalpindi Commissioner Zahid Saeed said any issues raised by the eunuchs would be decided by the Supreme Court and the registration process would be completed in accordance with new directions from the court.
In Sindh, NADRA general manager Zahid Hussain said the process of registering transgender people as voters would begin on January 28.
"Cultural constraints and a lack of understanding about the transgender community" have delayed the process in the more conservation Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, media reports said.
Farzana, president of the Shemale Association of Khyber-pakhtunkhwa capital Peshawar, said the government is reluctant to issue identity cards with the names of gurus and there is little hope that eunuchs will be registered.
According to records submitted to the Supreme Court by the government, there are 80,000 eunuchs in Pakistan.
PTI