Meet Ayesha Malik, Soon To Become Pakistan's First Female Chief Justice

Justice Ayesha Malik will soon become the first female Chief justice of Pakistan (CJP).

The outgoing CJP Mushir Alam recommended Justice Ayesha Malik for the elevation in the Supreme Court. This will be the first time that a woman will be at the top court. Currently, she is at the Lahore High Court and ranks four on the list of seniority. Justice Alam will be retiring on Aug 17, 2021 and a judicial committee is considering Malik as a judge for the top court.

Who is Ayesha Malik? 6 things to know about the judge to become the first female CJP

1. Ayesha Malik started her legal career in 1997. She assisted Fakhurddin G Ebrahim at his legal firm in Karachi till 2001. She studied law at the Pakistan College of Law, Lahore. She then got a Master's degree from the Harvard Law School in London. Malik became a justice in the Lahore High Court in 2012.
2. Malik studied in schools in Paris and New York. She moved to London's Francis Holland School for Girls to do her A-Levels.
3. In 2019, Ayesha Malik became the president of the Committee for Protection of Women Judges in Lahore. Lawyers in district courts formed the panel in the same year against violent behaviour towards female judges.
4. She is a part of The International Association of Women Judges (IAWJ). It is an initiative taken for the empowerment of women by providing them with equality and justice.
5. In January this year, Malik delivered a landmark ruling declaring two-finger and hymen tests on survivors of sexual assault as illegal and against the Constitution of Pakistan. A single bench led by Malik announced the verdict in a set of petitions which were filed in March and June last year by rights activists along with a Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz lawmaker.
6. Her judgement read that it is a humiliating practice used to cast suspicion on the victim, as opposed to focusing on the accused and the incident of sexual violence.