LAHORE: Activists of the transgender community on Monday urged lawmakers for early passage of The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill and The Criminal Law (Amendment) (Protection of Rights of Transgender Persons) Act to provide relief to the eunuch community.

Addressing a press conference at the Lahore Press Club, a lawyer said Pakistan People’s Party Senator Fahatullah Baber, Robina Khalid and Nighat headed a Task Force Committee and supported efforts to provide relief and rights to the community.

Jannat Ali, a transgender activist, said that the community was completely left out from the consultation and amendments that were being introduced for the community.

Dismissing the census results, they said the census presented a bleak picture as the actual number of transgender persons living in Pakistan was much higher than that stated in the results.

“According to different organisational surveys there are more than one million transgender person in Pakistan,” said an activist. "Our community members were not aware and they were scared of telling their identities so majority of them were left aside during the census."