The Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP) on Thursday approved the elevation of Justice Ayesha A. Malik to the Supreme Court. She is poised to become the first woman judge at the apex court.
The nomination needs to be endorsed by the Parliamentary Committee on Appointment of Judges, which is considered a formality.
In September last year, the JCP had met to consider her nomination but consensus could not be developed among the members. Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed, Justice Umar Ata Bandial, Attorney General for Pakistan (AGP) Khalid Jawed Khan, and Law Minister Dr Farogh Naseem had supported her nomination, while Justice Maqbool Baqar, Justice Sardar Tariq Masood, and Justice (retd) Dost Muhammad Khan and Pakistan Bar Council representative Akhtar Hussain had opposed it.
Nomination of Justice Ayesha: Lawyers decide to boycott courts
Chief Justice of Pakistan Gulzar Ahmed had again proposed Justice Malik’s name for her elevation in the Supreme Court.
Justice Malik became a Lahore High Court judge in March 2012 and is currently number four on the LHC judge seniority list. After her elevation to the apex court, she will work as a Supreme Court judge until June 2031.
PBC to discuss elevation of junior judge to SC on Jan 3
Earlier this week, the top bodies of lawyers, unanimously, decided to boycott the top court's proceedings on January 6, 2022, if the Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP) did not recall its scheduled meeting to recommend the elevation of Justice Ayesha Malik to the apex court.
Vice-chairman PBC Khushdil Khan, along with the Council’s Executive Committee Chairman Masood Chisti, on Monday briefed the media about the decision of the meeting, which was participated by the representatives of the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC), the provincial/Islamabad Bar Councils, the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA), and all the high court bar associations of the country.
He said that the meeting took serious note of once again the nomination of Justice Malik, for appointment in the Supreme Court. It is violating the seniority principle, superseding three judges of the Lahore High Court (LHC) including its chief justice, who are not only senior to her in service, but also senior in legal practice before their elevation to the High Court, particularly, when their integrity and competence is not in question, he added.
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