Five transgender candidates will take part in the elections 2018, in which two transgender contesting election from pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf- G political party and the other three are running as independents.
According to a private news channel report, although, at the onset of the election campaign, 13 transgender candidates filed their nomination papers for the contestable Constituencies in both the national and provincial assemblies. But nine were forced to drop out, due to lack of funds.
Former lawmaker, Ayesha Gulalai Wazir, who formed her own faction of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf political party, has fielded two of the four transgender candidates. The other three are running as independents. Read more via UrduPoint
Pakistan's Transgender Candidates Step Onto the Political Stage
Each week, residents of Islamabad call in to Nadeem Kashish’s radio show to vent frustration with the problems bedeviling Pakistan’s capital: a lack of running water; chronic electrical outages; soaring rent prices. On air, Kashish’s voice crackles with energy, imploring listeners to vote and hold politicians accountable on their campaign promises. But the program has been flooded in recent weeks by a new kind of call: Well-wishers ring in to congratulate the 35-year-old transgender woman on her bid to take the political reins of the capital — a coveted constituency where she will face off against several political heavyweights.
“I am running against big names like Imran Khan and former Prime Minister Shahid Abbasi, and I’m not considered a real threat,” Kashish, who is running as an independent in Pakistan’s nationwide elections on Wednesday, tells TIME. When she’s canvassing voters door-to-door, some jeer and poke fun at her appearance; she has close-cropped hair, sometimes wears lipstick, and does not conform to gender binarism. “People hear about my election run and think it’s a joke, they just start to laugh,” Kashish says, imitating her critics with a high-pitched chuckle.
Kashish, whose family disowned her at a young age, is an unconventional politician. She lives in a group home of transgender people in one of Islamabad’s grittiest slums, Mohallah Noori Bagh, Bari Imam. Kashish is one of a handful of transgender candidates stepping up to run for public office. The Muslim-majority country of 207 million gave transgender citizens the right to vote in 2011, and this week will see three transgender candidates running for seats in the National Assembly, as well as two others for seats in provincial legislatures.
Advocates estimate that Pakistan’s transgender community numbers half a million, though official census figures count them at 10,000. South Asian society has traditionally viewed the hijras or khwaja siras, as they are sometimes known locally, with a mixture of veneration and suspicion; believed to have mystical powers, many people fear their curses but invite them to bless childbirth and marriage ceremonies. During colonial rule, the British enacted the Criminal Tribes Act in 1871, which branded hijras and other social minorities as threats to public order and morality. Members of the marginalized group have historically been relegated to begging — even today, it is not uncommon to see trans men and women panhandling at stoplights in major cities. Read more via TIME