SEX WORK AND THE LAW - HIV/AIDS Data Hub

Section 371A and Section 371B of the Penal Code creates offences for buying or selling
persons for the purposes of sex work.
Male sex workers and hijras mainly engage in sex work in public areas such as parks or
streets. Transgender and male sex workers are particularly vulnerable to blackmail and
police extortion because male-to-male sex is criminalized by Section 377 of the Pakistan
Penal Code 1860. Penalties include fines and/or imprisonment for life.
4.7.2 Law enforcement practices
A study of female, male and transgender sex workers in the Punjab and North West
Frontier Province made the following findings:
In communities where violence and police exploitation are endemic, there are
high rates of STIs. Discrimination and abuse can push people to practice higherrisk
behaviours, including making them reluctant to attend condom promotion
programmes for fear of being identified. The fear or threat of discrimination and
humiliation deters many vulnerable people from seeking health services.
There is endemic exploitation and abuse of sex workers by police. Police capitalize
on their position of power, intimidating vulnerable people with threats of exposure,
arrest or property confiscation, to secure regular bribes or sexual favours.
The police are particularly discriminatory towards transgender sex workers. This
group experiences the highest levels of verbal and physical abuse, and while female
sex workers can sometimes avert police violence by offering bribes, this strategy is
rarely effective for transgender sex workers. 252
Many transgender persons (hijras) are involved in sex work. For example, a study of 409
hijras in Pakistan found that 84 percent had sold sex. 253 Young hijras experience pressure
to become nirbhan, or castrated sex workers. It has been suggested that hijras secure their
income and higher rank of their community after this operation. 254 Hijra communities
are often targeted by police for harassment and extortion, and some experience sexual
violence perpetrated by police. 255
A police raid on a hijra community led to a landmark Supreme Court in 2009, which
resulted in court orders requiring the government to register hijras as a third sex and
recognize their entitlements to welfare and other forms of state support. 256
252 London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Program for research and capacity building in SRH and
HIV (2009) Policy briefing: Confronting the HIV challenge in Pakistan: How human rights abuses are fuelling HIV risk,
London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.
253 Khan A,. Rehan N., Qayyum K., Khan A., (2008) Correlates and prevalence of HIV and sexually transmitted
infections among Hijras (male transgenders) in Pakistan Int J STD AIDS 19:817-820.
254 Collective for Social Science Research, Karachi (2004), ‘A rapid assessment of bonded labour in domestic
work and begging in Pakistan’, International Labour Office website, pp. 31-39, available at: http://www.ilo.org/
sapfl/Informationresources/ILOPublications/lang--en/docName--WCMS_082030/index.htm
255 Walsh D. (2010) Harassed, intimidated, abused: but now Pakistan's hijra transgender minority finds its
voice
New civil rights for Pakistan's long-oppressed 'wedding dancers' offer hope of a better life, The Guardian 29
January 2010.
256 Usmani B. (2009) Pakistan to register 'third sex' hijra The Guardian 18 July 2009. http://www.guardian.
co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jul/18/pakistan-transgender-hijra-third-sex; Dr Muhammad Aslam Khaki & Almas
Shah (alias Boby) v. SSP (Operations) Rawalpindi & others, Constitutional Petition 43/2009, Supreme Court of
Pakistan, 4 November 2009; 23 December 2009.
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