ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court of Pakistan may get the first female judge in the country’s history after Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed nominated Lahore High Court’s Justice Ayesha Malik as the likely replacement of Justice Mushir Alam who is scheduled to retire next week.
According to the local media, a judicial commission will convene on September 9 to discuss her possible elevation to the top court of the country.
The Lahore High Court judge went to the Harvard Law School before joining her country’s judiciary in March 2012.
Her nomination was welcomed by social media users who described her as Pakistan’s Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
“History has just been made in Pakistan’s Supreme Court,” Marvi Sirmed, a prominent activist, said in a Twitter post. “In country’s 74-year history, SC appoints it’s first woman judge.”
Pakistan’s Women’s Parliamentary Caucus also expressed its best wishes for the judge.
According to the website of Samaa TV, Malik is “mother of three children [who] used to fight pro bono cases for NGOs working on poverty alleviation, microfinance, and skills training programs.”
It added that Pakistan was the only South Asian country which had not elevated a woman judge to the apex court since its independence.
