LGBT rights in Pakistan

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Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights in Pakistan are considered taboo. Even in large cities, gays and lesbians have to be highly discreet about their sexual orientation. Pakistani law prescribes criminal penalties for same-sex sexual acts. The Pakistan Penal Code of 1860, originally developed under the British Raj, punishes sodomy with a possible prison sentence and has other provisions that impact the human rights of LGBT Pakistanis, under the guise of protecting public morality and order. Punishment can lead up to the death penalty under sharia law, however, there are no known cases that the death penalty was ever enforced for homosexuality according to ILGA.[2] Despite being illegal, acts of homosexuality are not always prosecuted in the country. Nonetheless, HIV infection, which affects heterosexual men and women, remains a serious problem.[1]

Discrimination and disapproval of the LGBT community, along with the associated social stigma, mostly stem from religious beliefs and make it difficult for LGBT people to have steady relationships.[5] Nevertheless, the LGBT community is still able to socialize, organize, date, and even live together as couples, if done mostly in secret.[6]

Sexual encounters between same-sex partners are more accessible in big cities such as Karachi and Lahore, for gay and bisexual men in particular. As a result of globalisation, increasing liberalisation trends and advancing social tolerance, private gay parties in Pakistan have been increasing for a number of years.[7] In addition, there is a growing number of individuals—especially those born to parents who have been educated in the developed world, who are usually university graduates and have some sort of understanding about evolution and sexuality—who are coming out to their friends and introducing them to their same-sex partner.[8]

In 2018, Parliament passed the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act which established broad protections for transgender people. Earlier, in a historic 2009 ruling, the Supreme Court of Pakistan ruled in favour of civil rights for transgender citizens, and further court rulings upheld and increased these rights.

Pakistan does not have civil rights laws to prohibit discrimination or harassment on the basis of sexual orientation. Neither same-sex marriages nor civil unions are permitted under current law and are scarcely ever brought up in the political discourse.

Legality of same-sex sexual activity
Pakistani law is a mixture of both Anglo-Saxon colonial law as well as Islamic law. Under the colonial aspects of the law, the section of the Penal Code criminalising consensual same-sex relations dates back to 6 October 1860 under the colonial rule of the British Raj. Written by Lord Macaulay, the Indian Penal Code 1860, as it was named at the time, made same-sex sexual acts illegal under the Anglo-Saxon law of "Unnatural Offences", known as carnal knowledge. After Pakistan received independence in 1947, the Parliament decided to continue using the same Penal Code, merely changing the title to Pakistan Penal Code (Act XLV of 1860). Within the Penal Code, Article 377 ("Unnatural Offences") states: "Whoever voluntarily has carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal, shall be punished with imprisonment [...] for a term which shall not be less than two years nor more than ten years, and shall also be liable to fine".[9]

As part of the Islamisation of Pakistan, the Hudood Ordinances were enacted in 1977, stipulating severe punishments for adultery, fornication, consuming alcohol and same-sex sexual acts. The amendments included primitive forms of penalization like whipping of up to 100 lashes and death by stoning. An LGBT Pakistani may face either secular or Islamic, or in some cases both, punishments. Although, all of the known recorded cases of these laws being used against LGBT Pakistanis suggest that the more common punishment involves harassment and sporadic blackmail by the police, then the imposition of fines and jail sentences