Pakistan’s first ever transgender newscaster appears on TV

One of Pakistan’s local broadcasting channel recently marked a milestone by hiring the country’s first transgender newscaster, Maavia Malik.

The first Pakistani transgender newscaster appeared on the television screens months after Pakistan Senate, the upper house of country's parliament, approved the bill for the protection of transgender persons, empowering them to determine their own gender identity.

A local senior journalist Shiraz Hassan tweeted about the newscaster and brought this news to light. Maavia is the first ever transgender newscaster to have been hired in any broadcasting of Pakistan and Shiraz shared a photo of the newscaster as she read the news.

#Pakistan first transgender news caster on screen now - Maavia Malik pic.twitter.com/uXJipyrEfL

— Shiraz Hassan (@ShirazHassan) March 23, 2018

As soon as the tweet was posted, the social media started showering Maavia with a lot of positive response and best wishes.

All the best to Maavia Malik 🙌

— Ayesha Khalid (@ayeshakhalid7) March 24, 2018

Wahh...that's really nice and impressive.

— Netra Parikh (@Netra) March 24, 2018

wonderful

— Aaliya Shah (@AaliyaShah1) March 23, 2018

MashaAllah great move.we must give and provide equal opportunities for them rather they will bagging dancing of the road.They deserve education and to be respected as well. Bravo to this news channel.

— Dr Mehmood Riaz Gill (@drgills73) March 24, 2018

Good to see we are finally making some progress.

— Naheel (@sarcasticnaheel) March 24, 2018

Since last year, a lot of changes have been made for the country’s transgender community that makes around 10,418 — 0.005 percent of the total population of over 207 million. One such positive change was the counting of transgender persons in the national census for the first time.