LAHORE: Following the Lahore High Court’s ruling, for the first time in Pakistan the transgender community will be included in the national population census. Monday’s ruling and the subsequent order comes in light of a petition filed before the High Court in November last year, seeking the court to enable enforcement of the community’s fundamental rights including issuance of national identity cards and enrolment in the population census. In the petition filed before the court, Waqar Ali, a member of the transgender community pleaded the court that the community has been marginalized. It added that the community is not respected by the society and even the families disown them. The petition sought allowing members of the community to identify themselves as transgender people in the national identity card – which is possible only after being registered for the census. In line with international obligations under conventions that Pakistan is a signatory to, the petitioner sought the court to direct the federal government to pass legislation for the welfare of the transgender community.

NEW DELHI: Bollywood filmmaker Karan Johar surely knows how to handle delicate issues in a dignified manner be it controversies surrounding his sexual orientation or issues such as working with Pakistani actors.

For years, rumours about him and Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan have been floating. However, he has handled them well.

Karan has talked about the rumours and insensitive comments in his upcoming biography. According to a report, some excerpts from his book were published by the Times of India, which read:

“There has been so much conjecture about my sexuality. For heaven's sake, for years there were rumours about Shah Rukh and me. And I was traumatised by it. I was on a show on a Hindi channel, and I was asked about Shah Rukh.'Yeh anokha rishta hai aap ka,' the interviewer said. He worded it in such a way that I got really angry. I said, 'If I asked you if you are sleeping with your brother, how will you feel?' So he said, `What do you mean? How can you ask me this question?' I said, 'How could you ask me this question?”

Karan said for him, Shah Rukh was like a father-figure and an older brother.

“For me, to look at him in that way or be subjected to those rumours was just ridiculous,” he added.