You've Been Warned, Pakistanis: Pay Your Taxes Or Scary Trannies Will Come For You!

http://www.queerty.com/youve-been-warned-pakistanis-pay-your-taxes-or-scary-trannies-will-come-for-you-20100719/

What to do when the locals won't pay their taxes? Send transgender tax collectors to their homes and shame them into paying.

That's the strategy by officials in Clifton, a neighborhood in Karachi, Pakistan, where tax officials are trying to crack down on an estimated 50 percent of 500,000 residents not paying taxes despite their affluence. Egads! But the tactic is actually an imported one; they borrowed it from India. Of course the method relies on the existing stigmatization of transgender people, and only helps it along.

This makes me so angry! I'm gonna show them just how scary trannies can really be when I march down there and kick whoever made this up's ass!

That just show's you how weird the world is I guess.
Kellie

Well, I know how it is in India and I assume Pakistan's much the same. These transgenders are of a special social class known as Hijras, seen as a third sex (though most of them identify as female within themselves) and they are seen as having special spiritual powers. More people are paying their taxes because they fear the Hijras' power to curse them with bad fortune if they don't. Also, if they make a scene, their neighbours will know that they have been cursed with bad fortune and will avoid them.
That's my understanding of it anyway. The way the article is set out at the moment fails to give any context to this seemingly bizarre decision! I agree it's discriminatory and reliant upon a certain transphobia to work, but technically speaking, it makes economic sense. 

->-bleeped-<- tax collections......
I am both mortified and completely tickled at the same time.

Fenrir, I'm impressed by your knowledge. I'm Indian so yes, this happens. It is believed that if an Aravani person curses you, it is not good. They use this superstition to their advantage and sometimes accost and intimidate pedestrians for money. I once got punched by an ARavani because I did not give her money. Most are really sweet though.
I know of a film director who sent them to an ad agency that had not paid him. The Aravani clapped and sang and sang till the agency people were so fedup they wrote the check. Of course the Aravani got a percentage.
You know because of their appearance and superstitions, few will hire them for jobs (and India and Pakistan dont have an anti discrimiation law) so if they are making money like this, they take the opportunity.
To my Indian Government's credit, some politicans are Aravani. They get a chance to be legislators. And the aravani are doing a fabulous job educating people about AIDS and HIV.

Wait, I don't get it... are hirjas sent to collect taxes because they are seen as embarrassing, or because they are highly revered? Because I was under the impression it was the former.

They are seen as intimidating because it is believed their curse can come true. Also Hijra community can sometimes get very physical - as in they touch you in a sexual or just affectionate way or pinch your cheeks and it can get quite embarassing. Also they make a lot of noise - clap and sing and dance, and it gets disturbing. In the case of the ad agency, they probably felt really embarassed they did not pay the poor director. And when thier clients came to the office, they were startled to see the hijras and asked about the whole debacle.