Pak woman files petition for sex change

A 24-year-old Pakistani woman has filed a petition in the Lahore High Court seeking permission to undergo sex change after doctors in the conservative country refused to perform the surgery without court order.

The girl filed the petition through advocate Naseer Husain Sindhu in the LHC yesterday. The petitioner, a resident of Kasur district, some 40 kms from here, said she had started feeling physical changes in her body when she was 14. She said she began consulting gynecologists at a private hospital here after feeling frequent pain and gender disorder. 

“Doctors at Fatima Memorial Hospital, Lahore have suggested me to immediately undergo surgery for a sex-change. However, the surgeons I approached refused to conduct the required surgical procedure apprehending possible legal action against them as they are not clear about what the law says in this regard. 

“The doctors have advised me to first get permission for the surgery from a court of law,” she said. The procedure is not available at Fatima Memorial Hospital and the petitioner has requested the court to allow her to undergo a sex-change surgery in the light of her ultrasound scan report.

Advocate Sindhu said there has been no bar in the Pakistani law to undergo sex change surgery, “But since some social stigma is attached to this kind of thing (sex change), surgeons are usually apprehensive and shy away from performing such procedures here.”