Pakistan: Justice Musarrat Hilali to become first woman chief justice of Peshawar High Court

Justice Musarrat Hilali is set to become the first woman chief justice of the Peshawar High Court on April 1 after the retirement of incumbent Qaiser Rasheed in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Hilali would be the second woman who would take charge as the chief justice of a high court after Justice Tahira Safdar, who was the top judge of the Balochistan High Court, Geo TV reported.

Justice Hilali was among the senior-most judges of the Peshawar High Court and would serve as the chief justice till her retirement, the channel reported.

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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.

She was also the first woman 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 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.