A Pakistani man has been sent to a mental prison following is intentions to create a g@y club in the country.
According to the Telegraph, the man, who was not identified was said to have tried to set up the nation’s first gay club after returning from the United Kingdom.
He filed an application to set up the club in Abbottabad, a city in Northern Pakistan with nearly 240 million residents, but was thrown into a mental hospital.
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According to the man, the establishment, which would’ve been called “Lorenzo” would 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.”
However, Gay, and all LGBTQ’s activities are prohibited in the country, and is punishable by up to two years in prison.
The man received a lot of abuse and backlash about his plans So much so that the man was transferred to the Sarhad hospital for psychiatric disease in Peshawar on May 9.
Speaking on this, the leader of the Jamiat Ulema Islam (JUI) party, a conservative religious group in the region attested to the fact that the man tried to set up the club after recently returning from a visit to the UK.
A local from the far-Right Pakistan Awami Tehreek party said he would’ve doused the club with petrol and set it alight, while the leader of the party, Naseer Khan Nazir, said there would be ‘very severe consequences’ if the club was allowed to go up.
Before being sent to the hospital, the man told the paper:
“I talk about human rights and I want everyone’s human rights to be defended. I have started the struggle for the rights of the most neglected community in Pakistan and I will raise my voice in every forum,’
Before he was sent to the mental hospital, he told the paper: ‘I talk about human rights and I want everyone’s human rights to be defended.’
‘I have started the struggle for the rights of the most neglected community in Pakistan and I will raise my voice in every forum,’
‘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.’
His application states that there would’ve been ‘no gay (or non-gay) sex (other than kissing)’ at the club.
The application added: ‘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.’
