Pakistan's top judicial commission has approved the nomination of the first female Supreme Court judge in the Islamic country's history.
Officials said the nine-member commission, headed by the chief justice of Pakistan, voted Thursday to elevate Justice Ayesha Malik, 55, to the highest court.
Politicians, activists and legal experts hailed the nomination as a historic day for the country.
"Being the first, one hopes she leads by example to pave the way for other women to follow in her footsteps to play their deserving role in all sectors of national life, including the judiciary," said Raoof Hasan, the special assistant to the Pakistani prime minister on information.
Others celebrated Malik's nomination as another step forward for Pakistani women. Pakistan gained independence in 1947, but no female judge until now has made it to the country's top court.
"Her presence will enrich the Supreme Court in many ways, including by finally bringing a woman's perspective to the highest court of Pakistan that has shockingly been missing for 74 years," tweeted Reema Omer, the South Asia legal adviser for the International Commission of Jurists.
Malik's historic elevation has been divisive, however. The judicial commission had turned down her nomination to the highest court last year, and media reports said Thursday's repeat vote was also close, divided 5-4.
Many lawyers' associations and reportedly the opposing members of the commission maintained the appointment was not in line with seniority lists as Malik was not among the top three most senior judges of the provincial high court from which she was elevated. Critics also questioned the integrity of the commission's decision-making process.
"Impediments such as opacity and lack of criteria in appointments process; an all-men judicial commission; and sexism in legal community continue to exclude women from the judiciary," Omer lamented.
Landmark ruling
Malik was widely hailed for her landmark provincial court ruling in early January 2021, outlawing so-called virginity tests on sexual assault survivors in Pakistan's most-populous Punjab province.
She declared the practice "humiliating," saying it "had no forensic value" and "offends the personal dignity of the female victim and therefore is against the right to life and right to dignity."
Malik also directed the federal and provincial governments to take necessary steps to "ensure that virginity tests are not carried out in medico-legal examination of the victims of rape and sexual abuse."
The controversial tests include inspecting the hymen and the invasive "two-finger" test—inserting two fingers into the vagina to determine whether a female is virgin—a long-standing tradition in many countries around the world, including Pakistan.
