On April 1, Justice Musarrat Hilali was sworn in as the Peshawar High Court’s (PHC) first female chief justice. She held the position as the court’s senior-most puisne judge following Justice Qaiser Rashid Khan’s retirement, and she will hold it until the Judicial Commission of Pakistan appoints a new chief justice.
The appointment was made in accordance with the rules, which explicitly provide that a judge, typically the senior puisne (senior most after the chief justice), may fill the position until a chief justice is nominated by the judicial commission.
Justice Hilali, who after Justice Rooh-ul-Amin Khan is the senior-most judge on the high court, was born on August 8, 1961, in Peshawar.
She graduated from Khyber Law College at the University of Peshawar with a law degree, and in 1983 she enrolled as a district court advocate. In 1988, she registered as a high court advocate, and in 2006, she did the same for the Supreme Court.
As a prominent member of the Peshawar High Court Bar Association, Judge Hilali held office as the organization’s first female secretary in 1988–1989, vice president in 1992–1994 and general secretary in 1997–1998. She was also the first woman to be chosen twice to serve on the Supreme Court Bar Association’s executive committee.
Her judicial career began in 2013 as an additional judge, and she has since held a permanent seat in the Peshawar High Court and been promoted to the position of Chief Justice, albeit provisionally.
