April 1, 2024
Staff report
LAHORE
Statistics published by the Law and Justice Commission of Pakistan (LJCP) reveal skewed women’s representation in Pakistan’s justice sector, highlighting the urgent need to ensure gender parity and inclusion within the country’s legal landscape.
Per the document, of the 3,142 judges and judicial officers serving across the nation, a mere 572 are females, constituting approximately 18% of the total judicial workforce. Delving deeper into the upper echelons of the judiciary, where 126 judges preside over the Supreme Court, the Federal Shariat Court, and the five High Courts, only 7 are female, accounting for a paltry 5.5% of the total.
At the district level, where judicial officers play a pivotal role in the administration of justice, out of the 3,016 officers, 565 are female, comprising nearly 19% of the district judiciary. Within the legal fraternity of Pakistan, out of the 230,879 lawyers enrolled in different Provincial Bars, approximately 40,000 are female, representing around 17% of the total enrollment. However, in the domain of prosecution, where 2,210 officers are currently engaged, female representation is notably lower, with only 341 women, making up 15% of the prosecutorial workforce.
Nominal improvement
Per a baseline study by the Women in Law Initiative (WIL) The State of Women’s Representation in Law, women constituted 5.5% of the members of the senior judiciary for the period 2020-2021. This statistic remains unchanged today in spite of the appointment of two female judges, Justice Ayesha Malik and Justice Musarrat Hilali, to the Supreme Court in the past two years. In 2022, Justice Ayesha Malik became the first woman apex court judge in Pakistan’s then 75-year-long history.
By 2021, WIL counted a measly 4 female members out of a total of 205 members from the eight bar councils, including the Pakistan Bar Council which, till date, has never seen a female in its executive. As recently as February 2023, advocates Sabahat Rizvi and Rabbiya Bajwa were the first in the Lahore High Court Bar Association’s (LHCBA) nearly century-long history to be elected secretary and vice-president respectively.
Per a study by WIL, eligibility requirements to run in local bar council elections have become extremely stringent since a 2018 amendment to the Legal Practitioners and Bar Councils Act, effectively allowing the bar councils to gatekeep corridors of power from women and young lawyers.