ISLAMABAD: Justice Musarrat Hilali has been confirmed as the chief justice of the Peshawar High Court (PHC) by President Arif Alvi, according to a communiqué from his office, ending the male domination of top posts in the provincial judiciary.
The appointment on Monday was made under clause 13 of Article 175-A of the Constitution which deals with the appointment of the judges to superior courts.
According to the law, a parliamentary committee, after confirmation by the Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP), “shall send the name of the nominee confirmed by it or deemed to have been confirmed to the prime minister who shall forward the same to the president for the appointment.”
Justice Hilali had been serving as the acting chief justice of the top provincial court since April 1.
Interestingly, Justice Hilali is only the second woman to serve in this capacity in any of the high courts. Before her, Justice Syeda Tahira Safdar was appointed as the chief justice of the Balochistan High Court (BHC) in 2018 where she served just over a year.
Pakistan, although still a deeply patriarchal society where human rights activists claim the law is often wielded against women, is becoming increasingly inclusive.
In January, Justice Ayesha Malik of the Lahore High Court (LHC) was sworn in as the nation’s first female judge of the Supreme Court where she now sits on the bench alongside 14 male colleagues.
According to Justice Hilali’s profile on the PHC website, she obtained her law degree from Khyber Law College Peshawar University.
She began her legal career as an advocate of district courts in 1983, followed by enrollment as a lawyer of the high court in 1988. In 2006, she was enrolled as a barrister of the Supreme Court.
Her illustrious career also includes being the first woman additional advocate general of the northwestern province, a position she held from November 2001 to March 2004. Hilali was also appointed as the first woman chairperson of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Environmental Protection Tribunal.
