Islamabad:
The Legal Commission for Pakistan (JCP) approved on Thursday nine nominations to the gap for Lahore High Court additional judges, but none of the female nominees could secure enough votes for the coveted castle.
Out of 49, seven were the female nominees for the appointment of additional judges in LHC. However, the Commission, which was influenced by the director, did not support women’s nominations.
Interestingly, there is only one female judge at LHC out of 35 judges at the moment.
Large political parties – PMLN and PPP – as well as leaders of the independent group have been successful in appointing judges after their elections in all high courts after the 26th amendment.
Executive nicely handled the high Court of Justice Justices by not adopting decisions from provincial assemblies to the constitution of constitutional benches.
With regard to non-approval of any female for LHC judge, Atira Ikram Advocate says it is in line with other “rather unfortunate court decisions in our time”.
“The lack of fair representation of women across public spheres, especially the judiciary, continues to undermine our potential. The appointment of judges is not a question limited to women’s representation in the law, but a symbol of insufficient protection and improvement of women’s rights across country such as divorce, custody and inheritance rights to name a few, ”she adds.
Women in the Law Initiative Pakistan -Founding Nida Usman Chaudhary says that since this JCP is questionable anyway, “is my only comfort here that they did an advantage of not questions.”
Nida states that the fact that all the designated are lawyer Supreme Court (ASC) shows how this can just be another of these invisible barriers that prevent women’s entry into the higher judiciary. Given that only 4 percent ASCs are women, this sharply reduces the pool of potential female candidates if this is actually a requirement.
“It also shows that JCP rules 2024 have failed to ensure diversity in judicial appointments by caters to male centric measurements and criteria that probably fail marginalized groups most of the time,” said Nida Usman Chaudhry.
Since the passage of the 18th constitutional amendment in 2010, there is no judge from any minority society in the overall court consisting of the Supreme Court and five high courts.
Meanwhile, JCP approved, led by Chief Justice of Pakistan Yahya Afridi, nine nominations for appointment as additional judges in Lahore High Court with majority votes. They include Hassan Nawaz Makhdoom, Malik Waqar Haider Awan, Sardar Akbar Ali, Syed Ahsan Raza Kazmi, Malik Javid Iqbal Wains, Muhammad Jawad Zafar, Khalid Ishaq, Malik Muhammadais Khalid and Ch -Sultan Mahmood.
The Commission unanimously decided that nominees who could not secure the required majority may be nominated for future vacancies.
The chairman also appreciated the services provided by the Punjab Information Technology Board staff (Pitb) to help members use the web portal for the procedure at the meeting.
