ISLAMABAD: The Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP), on Thursday, did not approve the elevation of Justice Ayesha Malik as the judge of the Supreme Court as the members were divided on the recommendation.
Chief Justice of Pakistan Gulzar Ahmed chaired the JCP meeting, which was participated by three senior judges of the apex court, Attorney General for Pakistan Khalid Jawed Khan, Law Minister Farogh Naseem, and the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) representative, Akhtar Hussain.
According to the sources, four members of the Commission gave vote in favour of Justice Malik and four opposed her elevation.
As per the Constitution, approval for the elevation of a judge is given with the majority of the JCP members.
Justice Qazi Faez Isa did not attend the meeting as he is out of the country for the treatment of his wife, Sarina Isa, while Justice Maqbool Baqir participated in the JCP meeting through a video link.
It is the first time that recommendation of the chief justice of Pakistan was dismissed by the members.
If the JCP had approved Justice Malik's elevation, then she would have been the first female judge of the Supreme Court.
Justice Malik has been a Lahore High Court (LHC) judge since March 27, 2012.
According to her profile on the LHC's website, she did her B.Com from the Government College of Commerce and Economics, Karachi and studied law at Lahore's Pakistan College of Law.
She then went on to complete her LLM from Harvard Law School, where she was named London H Gammon Fellow 1999-1999.
She had delivered the judgment against Sharif family of not installing sugar mills in South Punjab.
Her name came to fame after her landmark judgment against the "two-finger test" or two-finger virginity test of sexual assault survivors.
The 30-page verdict said "virginity testing is highly invasive, having no scientific or medical requirement, yet carried out in the name of medical protocols in sexual violence cases."
The "humiliating practice is used to cast suspicion on the victim, as opposed to focusing on the accused and the incident of sexual violence."
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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