By Mohammad Zubair Khan
A Pakistani man who tried to set up the country’s first gay club has been detained in a psychiatric hospital by local authorities.
Gay sex is illegal in Pakistan and can be punished by two years up to life in prison.Credit: AP
The man, who chose not to give his identity in an interview, had filed an application to set up the club in Abbottabad, the conservative northern city where Osama bin Laden was found and killed.
In the application filed to the deputy commissioner (DC) of the city, the man said the club was to be a “great convenience and resource for many homosexual, bisexual and even some heterosexual people residing in Abbottabad in particular, and in other parts of the country in general.”
Gay sex is illegal in Pakistan and can be punished by two years up to life in prison. The conservative religious culture also makes it difficult to be openly homosexual, although in practice the laws are rarely applied.
Displays of affection are also frowned upon among heterosexual couples, with fornication before marriage a crime.
The application stated that in “the envisaged gay club, tentatively to be called Lorenzo gay club, there would be no gay (or non-gay) sex (other than kissing).”
“A clearly visible notice on the wall would warn: no sex on premises. This would mean that no legal constraints (even obsolete ones like [anti-sodomy] PPC section 377) would be flouted on the premises”.
Abbottabad’s DC office confirmed it had received the application for a gay club and was reviewing it like any other proposal.
Fury among residents
However, the application was leaked on social media, prompting fury from locals and politicians in the northern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where women face limits on their ability to access education and on socialising outside their homes.
Naseer Khan Nazir, a leader of the right-wing Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PATY), said that if permission for the club was granted, there would be “very severe consequences”.
Another MP from the party said that he would douse the building with petrol and set it on fire.
The leader of Jamiat Ulema Islam (JUI), a conservative religious party in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assembly, claimed that the man trying to set up the club had recently returned from a visit to the UK.
The Telegraph, which tried to visit the applicant in his home, has learned that he was transferred to the Sarhad hospital for psychiatric disease in Peshawar on May 9.
Friends said they were extremely concerned for his safety and that they had been blocked from visiting the man or finding out more information.
“Everyone is afraid that talking about it will put them in danger,” one said.
“I do not know about his well-being for many days” they said, adding that they had “tried to find out about him a couple of times but without success”.
The friend added that the applicant’s sexuality was well-known in Abbottabad and there had never been issues with him in the community. They said he was now highly “vulnerable” and “anything could happen to him at any time.”
In an interview before he was sent to the Peshawar mental hospital, the applicant said: “I talk about human rights and I want everyone’s human rights to be defended”.
He said that he would ask officials for a written reply on why they had rejected his petition, should it prove unsuccessful.
“I have started the struggle for the rights of the most neglected community in Pakistan and I will raise my voice in every forum,” he said.
“If the authorities refuse, then I will approach the court and I hope that like the Indian court, the Pakistani court will rule in favour of gay people.”
Several Indian states allow live-in relations between same-sex couples, but last year, the Supreme Court declined to legalise gay marriage, arguing it is a matter for parliament.
Religious parties have accused the applicant of working on behalf of a foreign state and called for Abbottabad’s DC to be dismissed simply for considering the application.
The Telegraph, London
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