Women nominees for LHC fail to impress JCP

The Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP) on Thursday approved nine nominations for the slot of the Lahore High Court additional judges but none of the female nominees could secure enough votes for the coveted slot.

Out of 49, seven were the female nominees for the appointment of additional judges of the LHC. However, the commission influenced by the executive did not support the women nominations.

Interestingly, there is only one female judge at the LHC out of 35 judges at the moment.

Major political parties – the PMLN and the PPP – as well as leaders of the Independent Group have been successful in appointing judges of their choice in all high courts after the 26th Amendment.

The executive nicely handled the high courts' chief justices by not passing resolutions from provincial assemblies for the constitution of constitutional benches.

Regarding the non-approval of any female for LHC judge, Atira Ikram advocate says it is in line with other "rather unfortunate judicial decisions of our time".

"The lack of fair representation of women across public spheres, particularly the judiciary, continues to undermine our potential. The appointment of judges is not an issue limited to women representation in law, but a symbol of inadequate protection and enhancement of women rights across the country such as divorce, custody and inheritance rights to name a few", she adds.

Women in law Initiative Pakistan founder Nida Usman Chaudhary says that since this JCP is questionable anyway, "my only consolation here is that they did a favour by not appointing any females and spared them the stigma of becoming judges under a system whose constitutionality is under serious question."

Nida states that the fact that all those appointed are advocate supreme court (ASC) shows how this may just be another one of those invisible barriers hindering women's entry in higher judiciary. Given that only 4 percent ASCs are women, this severely reduces the pool of potential female candidates if this indeed is a requirement.

"It also shows that JCP Rules 2024 have failed to ensure diversity in judicial appointments by catering to male-centric metrics and criteria that is likely to fail marginalised groups most of the time," says Nida Usman Chaudhry.

Since the passage of the 18th constitutional amendment in 2010, there is no judge from any minority community in the superior judiciary comprising the Supreme Court and five high courts.

Meanwhile, the JCP, led by Chief Justice of Pakistan Yahya Afridi, approved nine nominations for appointment as Additional Judges in the 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 MuhammadAwais Khalid and Ch Sultan Mahmood.

The commission unanimously decided that nominees who failed to secure the required majority may be re-nominated for future vacancies.

The chairperson also appreciated the services rendered by the staff of the Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB) for assisting the members in using the web portal for the proceedings of the meeting.