Peshawar High Court to get first female chief justice on April 1

PESHAWAR: Justice Musarrat Hilali is set to become the first female chief justice of the Peshawar High Court (PHC) on April 1 after the retirement of current CJ Qaiser Rasheed.

She would be the second female who would take charge as the CJ of a high court after Justice Tahira Safdar, who was the top judge of the Balochistan High Court.

Justice Musarrat Hilali was among the senior-most judges of PHC and would serve as the chief justice till her retirement.

Born in Peshawar on August 8, 1961, she received Law Degree from Khyber Law College Peshawar University and enrolled as an advocate of district courts in 1983, as an advocate of the high court in 1988, and as an advocate of the Supreme Court in 2006.

Being a woman, she had several achievements in her career, including being the first female elected office bear on the post of secretary at the bar from 1988-1989, vice president at the bar (twice) from 1992 to 1994, general secretary from 1997-1998, first female twice elected as an executive member of Supreme Court Bar Association(SCBA) from 2007-2008 and 2008-2009.

She was also the first female Additional Advocate General of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa from November 2001 to March 2004 and was later appointed as the first female chairperson of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Environmental Protection Tribunal.

She also served as the first female ombudsperson for the Protection against Harassment of Women at Workplace.

She was elevated to the bench as an additional judge on March 26, 2013, and confirmed as a permanent judge of the PHC on March 13, 2014.

Last year in January, Justice Ayesha Malik made history in Pakistan's judicial system after being sworn in as the first female judge of the Supreme Court of Pakistan.