The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has stressed the urgent need for addressing the severe under-representation of women in the higher judiciary.
As part of HRCP’s media campaign, ahead of International Women’s Day (March 8), the Commission on Friday drew attention towards women’s under-representation in Pakistan’s legal profession, particularly in the superior judiciary.
Only 5.8% of high court judges in the country are women, and to date, no woman had been appointed as a judge of the Supreme Court or as chief justice of any of the high courts.
Women also remained under-represented in positions of status and influence in others fields of the legal profession, including offices of bar associations and the office of the attorney general. Since 1947, there had been only one female president of the Supreme Court Bar Association. These numbers were the lowest in the region, HRCP said.
