In contemporary discussions about rights, representation, and inclusion in Pakistan, some populations remain perpetually on the fringes of public policy and national identification. Religious minorities, ethnic populations, and women have become more visible in today’s conversations, although the extent of genuine engagement has varied. However, there is one group that is missing from not only public conversation but from statistics as well: intersex Pakistanis. The absence of intersex Pakistanis from the national statistics is not simply a missing set of numbers but the act of silence inscribed within the state recognition machinery. Without a place in census figures, all forms of planning by the state are rendered obsolete as invisibility justifies neglect and neglect reinforces invisibility.

This problem is not just limited to Pakistan; intersex people (those born with variations in sex characteristics) are routinely statistically invisible across the world. However, here, the issue is exacerbated by the intersection of conservative social attitudes, bureaucratic inertia, and a lack of adequate legal frameworks. Although there have been legislative advancements, such as the landmark Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act of 2018, intersex identity is often either collapsed, misclassified, or fully excluded in a categorization strategy. Thus, that population in Pakistan is omitted from the quantitative evidence that shapes development priorities, resource allocation, and rights-based policy development.

This lack is not just a data problem; it is a matter of political will, cultural recognition, and epistemic justice. If there is no data, there is no feasible policy and if there is no policy, there is no accountability. By surveying the historical development of intersex recognition in Pakistan, identifying the statistical gaps, and discovering the implications of invisibility, it should be understood that the act of counting intersex Pakistanis is not simply a bureaucratic process but a political responsibility.

The history of intersex recognition in Pakistan is closely linked with the broader category known as khwaja sira, which includes many identities, including transgender women, eunuchs, and intersex people. The khwaja sira were historically respected and treated with ceremonial roles in the Mughal courts, but functions of colonial rule articulated these identities through pathological and criminal lenses. The Criminal Tribes Act of 1871, and especially its provisions on “eunuchs”, were pivotal in moving towards a criminalization and surveillance of gender non-conforming communities and aggregating identities away from more traditional modes of recognition.

The Supreme Court decisions of

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