It was indeed very heartening to hear that the PPP-led coalition’s federal government has decided to appoint women judges.
According to the media reports, this very welcome announcement was made by no less a person than President Asif Ali Zardari himself the other day at a ceremony held at the Presidency in Islamabad which marked culmination of a campaign during which one million people from across the country had signed a petition aimed at spreading awareness about violence against women.
Though no further elaboration is available immediately in this regard, but it is presumed that when the president talked about the decision to appoint women judges, he meant induction of women judges in the superior judiciary i.e., High Courts of Lahore, Sindh, Peshawar, Balochistan and Islamabad and subsequently at the country’s apex court, the Supreme Court, as well.
What President Zardari said on the occasion, as the reports mentioned, the appointment of women judges is part of the efforts being made by the federal government to take social, economic, legal and constitutional steps for the empowerment of women in the country. President Zardari’s announcement is in fact carrying forward the policy of women empowerment in all fields which was initiated by Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto during her two stints as the prime minister.
Women form little more than half of the country’s ever-growing population and it is a worth mentioning matter of record that womenfolk have been and are gradually entering in all fields of national activity most of which were hitherto were considered “no go area” for them.
Now that President Asif Ali Zardari has made public an appreciable decision of the government, it is hoped that necessary steps would be taken at the appropriate level without any further delay speedily to implement it in the right earnest.
Apparently, there is no bar on women in the constitution to become the judges of the Supreme Court of Pakistan and the High Courts. But somehow, there has been no woman chief justice of any high court so far what to talk about the country’s apex court. This may now become possible after what president Zardari announced the other day.
MOMINA BILAL MUSHTAQ SHAIKH
Lahore