Pakistan made history on Monday with its first female judge being elevated to the Supreme Court. Justice Ayesha Malik took oath in a well-attended ceremony at the Supreme Court.

Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Gulzar Ahmed administered the oath to Justice Ayesha Malik. In the oath she would have pledged the following:

(In the name of Allah, the most Beneficent, the most Merciful.)

I, ____________, do solemnly swear that I will bear true faith and allegiance to Pakistan:

That, as a Judge of the Supreme Court of Pakistan I will discharge my duties, and perform my functions, honestly to the best of my ability and faithfully in accordance with the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and the law:

That I will abide by the code of conduct issued by the Supreme Judicial Council:

That I will not allow my personal interest to influence my official conduct or my official decisions:

That I will preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan:

And that, in all circumstances, I will do right to all manner of people, according to law, without fear or favor, affection or ill-will. 

May Allah Almighty help and guide me (A’meen).

Right after Justice Malik completed her oath, Chief Justice of Pakistan Gulzar Ahmed said: “She deserved to become the chief justice, and she is one today.”

On January 6, the Judicial Commission of Pakistan, or JCP had approved her elevation of Justice Ayesha Malik to the Supreme Court of Pakistan as a Judge.

When Justice Malik becomes an SC judge

Under the Constitution and rules set out for the appointment of judges to the higher judiciary, the JCP recommendations are sent to the Parliamentary Committee on the appointment of a judge.

The committee may confirm the nominee by a majority of its total membership within 14 days, failing which the nomination is deemed to have been confirmed.

However, the committee may not reject the nomination, for reasons to be recorded, by three-fourth majority within 14 days and forward the decision to the JCP through Prime Minister. In such case the JCP will send another nomination.

If the Committee approves the nominee or makes no decision in 14 days, the name of the judge is sent to the prime minister, who forwards it to the President for appointment.

The rules have been explained on the Supreme Court of Pakistan website.

Who is Justice Ayesha Malik

Justice Malik has been a Lahore High Court judge since March 27, 2012. She did her BCom from the Government College of Commerce & Economics, Karachi and studied law at Lahore’s Pakistan College of Law, according to her profile on the Lahore High Court’s website. She then went on to complete her LLM from Harvard Law School, where she was named London H Gammon Fellow 1999-1999. She has three children.

She used to fight pro bono cases for NGOs working on poverty alleviation, microfinance, and skills training programmes.

After elevation to the judge of the apex court, she would serve as the judge for 10 years. She may even become the Chief Justice of Pakistan after the retirement of Justice Yahya Afridi in January 2030. She would hold this office for a year or so, sources have said.

Pakistan was the only country in South Asia to not have appointed a woman judge in the Supreme Court. The Human Rights C0mmission of Pakistan said, in a report, that only 5.3% of the country’s judges are women. The number is the lowest in South Asia.

Pakistan had appointed Khalida Rashid Khan as its first woman judge in 1974. She was appointed anti-corruption judge and then elevated to the high court in 1994.

Ruling on two-finger and hymen tests of rape survivors

Justice Ayesha A Malik had authored the landmark verdict banning two-finger and hymen tests of rape survivors in Punjab.

The court had ruled the tests to be ‘illegal and unconstitutional’.

The 30-page verdict said “virginity testing is highly invasive, having no scientific or medical requirement, yet carried out in the name of medical protocols in sexual violence cases.” The “humiliating practice is used to cast suspicion on the victim, as opposed to focusing on the accused and the incident of sexual violence.”

The verdict said that these tests are a blatant violation of the dignity of a woman. “The conclusion drawn from these tests about a woman’s sexual history and character is a direct attack on her dignity and leads to adverse effects on the social and cultural standing of a victim,” it added.

Cases should be investigated on the basis of whether the accused person raped the survivor or not. “If the victim is found to not be a virgin it cannot and does not suggest that she was not raped or sexually abused.” This shifts the focus of the case on the virginity status of the survivor, it said.

“The victim’s sexual behaviour is totally irrelevant as even the most promiscuous victim does not deserve to be raped, nor should the incident of sexual violence be decided on the basis of a virginity test,” the verdict added.

Punjab banned the two-finger test for rape and sexual violence survivors on November 13.