LGBT rights in Pakistan
After the so-called 1871 Criminal Tribes Act, a vicious cycle of persecution against transgenders of degradation began in the British India. Degraded to criminal tribe with genetic flaws, transgenders lost their royal status and gradually were excluded from all respectable social circles. Such is the power of the master that slaves and servants fashion their own hierarchies of inferiority among themselves. All designated criminal tribes under the 1871 Act suffered social degradation and persecution but transgenders were the hardest hit. In order to survive, some transgenders took to dancing performed at the birth of a new child in the community, collecting Wadhais (tips). Some developed the joyous art of clapping and dancing. Some developed the art of lampooning and were invited to the wedding feasts of the well-to-do to make fun of the groom, the guests, and even the politicians. They played the same role of amusing private gatherings as do late-night TV comedians in the United States. Some transgenders took to begging, some to Male prostitution, and some to criminality, thus fulfilling the prophecy of the so-called 1871 Criminal Tribes Act. After formal dissolution of the former British Empire; Independent states of modern Republic of India and Pakistan came into being respectively, thus the Criminal Tribes Act was repealed with respect to transgenders. However, the damage done to transgenders was irreparable. Transgenders lost social respect and various stereotypes have been built to humiliate and discount the transgender community. A pejorative word Khusra is in active currency to denigrate the personality of transgenders. Friends might tease a feminine-looking friend as a Khusra. An incompetent politician is called a Khusra. In both modern India and Pakistan, the word Khusra is associated with impotence, incompetence, and powerlessness. In Pakistan, the people have forgotten the spiritual role that the transgenders played in Islam. Transgenders are ridiculed and insulted. Popular TV shows, such as Khabarnaak and Khabardaar, make cruel jokes against transgender community. One of these shows is headed by a lawyer licensed to practice before the high courts of Pakistan.