Press Release, Lahore: The Women in Law Initiative Pakistan released their annual report on the ‘State of Representation of Women in Judiciary’ for the year 2024 on Friday, 24th January 2025 to mark the third anniversary of the ‘Day of Women’s Representation in the Supreme Court of Pakistan’.
Ever since the first female took oath as a justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan in 2022, the Initiative marks 24 January each year to commemorate the historic day and offering the opportunity to take stock of developments as regards gender parity in judiciary.
“When Pakistan appointed its first female as a judge of the Supreme Court of Pakistan in 2022, it was the last country in the region to do so.” Said Nida Usman Chaudhary, founder of Women in Law Initiative Pakistan.
The Report was prepared by Tabeen Sarmad, Programmes Consultant at Women in Law Initiative Pakistan with support from Advocate Tayyaba Kakar. The data was collected from official court websites and/or staff during December 12 – 31 2024.
The report builds on the work done in previous reports from 2020 and 2023. It therefore, also offers a comparative analysis and trends in parity vis a vis these years.
The report presents a gender-segregated and tier-wise analysis of the judiciary in Pakistan as at December 31, 2024, highlighting trends in both the subordinate and higher judiciary.
As between female judges inter-se, overall, there has been a decline in the number of women in higher courts from 7 in 2023 and to 5 in 2024. However, the number of women in subordinate courts has increased from 572 in 2023 to 596 in 2024.
In subordinate judiciary in KP remains the leading province in terms of percentage maintaining 25% representation of women in subordinate judiciary. Punjab marginally improved from 17% in 2023 to 18% in 2024.
In Sindh, the overall trend shows an increase of 1% in representation of women in subordinate judiciary as compared to 2023, bringing it back to the point where it was at in 2020-21, i.e. at 14%. This increase is however, not because of induction of more female judges in subordinate courts in Sindh but rather because of the decrease in number of male judges in subordinate courts from 620 in 2023 to 597 in 2024.
Balochistan continues to record 12% of women’s representation in subordinate judiciary while ICT saw a 1% decrease from 23% in 2023 to 22% in 2024 of women in subordinate judiciary, with no women as senior civil judges or DSJs.
At the High Court Level, Islamabad High Court leads with 12.5% representation, which is the same as 2023, followed by Sindh High Court at 4% while representation of women in Lahore High Court, has declined from 5% in 2023 to 3% in 2024. Notably, Peshawar, Balochistan, AJK and GB had 0% representation of female judges in their High Courts in 2024.
In GB and AJK, female representation increased by 1% (from 19% to 20% for GB and from 11% to 12% for AJK) but only due to a decrease in male judges from 79 in 2023 to 76 in 2024 and 29 in 2023 to 28 in 2024 respectively. The number of female judges for these provinces remains the same as in 2023.
Total number of women judges in the higher judiciary, (including the Supreme Court), dropped from 7 in 2023 to 5 in 2024. This entails 2 women at the Supreme Court and 3 women in three of the seven High Courts included in this report.
“It is a bittersweet result because while women’s representation in the subordinate judiciary has increased from 16% in 2020 to 18% in 2024 and shows a consistent improvement each year, in the higher courts it has rather regressed as women’s representation decreased from 6% in 2023 to 4% in 2024, which is where it matters the most. Therefore, the pace of progress is very slow and leaves much to be desired, particularly in the higher judiciary.” said Tabeen Sarmad.
The full report can be accessed here: http://bit.ly/3WwouEl