Female judges make up 5.5pc of higher judiciary strength: report

ISLAMABAD: The Law and Justice Commission of Pakistan has recommended that the government and other relevant stakeholders should take steps to encourage the inclusion of more females in the justice sector.

In this regard, the Law and Justice Commission has recently released a report that summarises the statistics of females working in the justice sector of Pakistan.

The report highlights the number of female judges, lawyers, prosecution officers and human resource personnel working in the courts of Pakistan.

As per the report, currently there are 3,142 judges and judicial officers working across of the country. Out of that 2,570 are male and 572 are female.

The report further reveals that there are currently 126 judges working at the upper tier of the judiciary, which includes the Supreme Court of Pakistan, the Federal Shariat Court, and the five high courts.

Out of these 126 judges, 119 are male, while only seven are female. Therefore, female judges make up only 5.5 percent of the total working strength of judges at the upper tier.

The report further stated that there are 3,016 judicial officers working at the district judiciary level. Out of these officers, 2,451 are male and 565 are female.

Additionally, the report includes a province-wise list of ex-cadre positions held by female judicial officers. Furthermore, the report reveals that there are 230,879 lawyers enrolled in different provincial bars in the country. Out of these, 198,100 lawyers are male, while around 40,000 lawyers are female. The female lawyers make up about 17 percent of the total number of lawyers enrolled. According to the report, data collected from the prosecution departments reveals that there are currently 2,210 prosecution officers working in the country. Out of these, 1,869 officers are male and 341 are female.