JCP okays elevation of Justice Ayesha Malik as SC judge

ISLAMABAD: The Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP) on Thursday recommended the elevation of Justice Ayesha A Malik of the Lahore High Court (LHC) as a judge of the Supreme Court, ARY News reported.

The JCP approved the nomination of Justice Ayesha A Malik with five members endorsing the move and four opposing it.

The Commission meeting was held at the Supreme Court building under the chair of Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Gulzar Ahmed.

Justice Qazi Faez Isa, Justice Maqbool Baqar, Justice Sardar Tariq and PBC representative strongly opposed the nomination of Justice Ayesha to the apex court on several grounds.

Justice Ayesha A Malik will become the first woman SC judge after approval from the parliamentary committee.

It is pertinent to mention here that the Judicial Commission Pakistan (JCP) meeting in September ended without a decision

on Justice Ayesha Malik’s elevation to the Supreme Court.

The JCP which met under Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed concluded inconclusively as the vote count over Justice Ayesha’s appointment as first SC woman judge ended in a tie.

As per sources, Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed, Justice Umar Ata Bandial, the Attorney General, and Law Minister Farogh Naseem voted in favour, while Justice Maqbool Baqar, Justice Sardar Tariq, Justice (retired) Dost Mohammad Khan, and Pakistan Bar Council Representative to the SJC Akhtar Hussain voted against the appointment.

Justice Qazi Faez Isa could not attend the meeting as he was out of the country.

Justice Ayesha A Malik bio

Justice Malik will be the first woman judge in Pakistan’s history to be elevated to the top court. She has been a Lahore High Court judge since March 27.

According to her profile on the Lahore High Court’s website, she did her B.Com from the Government College of Commerce and Economics, Karachi and studied law at Lahore’s Pakistan College of Law.

She completed her LLM from Harvard Law School, where she was named London H Gammon Fellow 1999-1999.

Justice Ayesha A. Malik has already given her consent to her elevation to the Supreme Court (SC).