General’s gender bias

It was in 2002 that Justice Fakhrunissa became the seniormost judge in the Lahore High Court. To stop her becoming Chief Justice, the regime refused to fill vacancies in the Supreme Court of Pakistan. Filling in the vacancies would mean elevating the Chief Justice of Lahore High Court and creating a vacancy for the woman judge to fill.

It took 58 years of Pakistan history for a woman to attain the right to be appointed Chief Justice. The legal and constitutional requirement for appointment of justices and Chief Justice was violated by the Musharraf dictatorship to stop a woman becoming the Chief Justice of Pakistan’s largest province.

Moreover, Article 25(2) of Pakistan’s Constitution stipulating that there shall be no discrimination on the basis of gender was also violated. Unsurprisingly, women were appointed to the judiciary in the PPP governments and the law against gender discrimination was passed by Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. Justice Fakhrunissa was elevated to the judiciary in 1994 under the PPP government.

The violation of constitution and law in denying Justice Fakhrunissa her right to assume the Chief Justiceship of the Lahore High Court is a black day in the history of Pakistan. It is part of the dictatorship’s systematic attack on justice and women’s rights.

Upon assuming office, Islamabad’s military dictatorship ordered all judges to take a fresh oath of allegiance to its own law (the Legal Framework Order), overriding the oath taken to defend the Constitution. Second, it removed the Supreme Court Chief Justice and half its judges, as well as others in the high courts. The International Court of Justice criticised this action.

The regime refused to fill vacancies in the Supreme Court fearing that this would mean that Justice Fakhrunissa would either be accommodated as Chief Justice, Lahore High Court, or elevated as member of the Supreme Court.

The result of this violation is that Pakistan has been denied a woman Chief Justice. If a woman is now appointed to the higher judiciary, it would take more than a decade for her to reach the seniority to become Chief Justice.

The actions of the Musharraf dictatorship are a serious blow to the independence of the judiciary, to the rise of women to positions of importance and to the principle of equality between genders.

It is for this reason that so many in Pakistan give their lives for democracy believing that it is democracy alone that can move Pakistan on to the path of moderation and progress.