ISLAMABAD: Justice Ayesha Malik is set to become the first woman judge in the Supreme Court of Pakistan in the country’s history.
The decision is set to take place during a meeting of the Judicial Commission on September 9, which will be chaired by Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Gulzar Ahmed.
Justice Mushir Alam will retire on August 17 and she is expected to replace him. The body is considering appointing Lahore High Court’s Justice Malik as a judge for the top court.
If confirmed, Justice Ayesha Malik will be the first woman judge in the history of Pakistan to be elevated to the Supreme Court. Justice Malik has been a Lahore High Court judge since March 27, 2012, and ranks number four on the seniority list of the LHC.
Born in 1966, Malik completed her basic education from schools in Paris, New York, and Karachi She completed her BCom from the Government College of Commerce and Economics, Karachi, and studied law at Pakistan College of Law, Lahore.
She did LLM from Harvard Law School where she was named a London H. Gammon Fellow 1998-1999 for outstanding merit. Justice Malik has appeared in the high courts, district courts, banking courts, special tribunals, and arbitration tribunals.
The justice was called upon as an expert witness in family law cases conducted in England and Australia involving issues of child custody, divorce, women’s rights, and constitutional protection for women in Pakistan.
Justice Malik gave her landmark judgment back in June, when she had declared virginity tests for examination of sexual assault survivors “illegal and against the Constitution of Pakistan.”
A single bench led by Justice Malik announced the verdict in a set of petitions, filed in March and June 2020 by rights activists along with a PML-N lawmaker.
