The comment of the Chief Justice about recruiting eunuchs for bank loans recovery programs is a worrying development. It creates the impression of a certain amount of jest being employed by the Supreme Court of Pakistan in the guise of dispensing justice. One expects the Supreme Court to be more formal and correct in the conduct of business it is entrusted with. Unfortunately, the court has not even chosen to address the real issues of the hejras, like the inheritance for instance. The SC order of registering the hejras would only serve to raise further legal issues. Although the matter of ascertainment of sex was left to doctors, it is unlikely to solve the problem fully. The Supreme court should have consulted religious scholars as well before directing NADRA to proceed with registration. The hejras inheritance is not so simple. In usual practice, the male and female shares are clearly stipulated in the Sharia. Traditionally, the simple inability to reproduce, such as infertility in a woman or man does not affect his portion in the inheritance. Since we know by virtue of science that default sex of a human is female in the absence of Y-chromosomes, so we need not go into classifying the hejras as 'others' or 'third gender'. They can simply be classified as 'females'. As things are in this country, the hejras are being systematically exploited and pushed into the dark trade of ghettos. If Supreme court wishes to contribute something serious on the issue of these exploited human beings, it better not come up with banal suggestions like recruiting them for tax collection. Why can't it order the government to establish institutions to train them in other useful trades through which they could make a living in a decent way. -DR M. I. SHAIKH, Islamabad, December 26.