Chief Justice Lahore High Court Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry said that judges amongst women will be appointed soon in the LHC. Addressing a seminar organised on International Women Day Chief Justice said recently 223 civil judges were inducted in Punjab and out of them 67 were women and they were recruited on merit, the Chief Justice said woman is respectable because every man respects his mother.
About equal rights, Chief Justice Ijaz said women rights equal to men and they should come to court for relief in cases of inheritance where they are cheated by parents of their share in property. CJ Ijaz condemned the tradition 'wata-sata' (exchange) marriages in families for which consent of girls is usually not taken. He urged NGO to work in such areas where 'wata sata' marriages are still in practice and women are suffering. Chief justice said law of the land and Islam allow Pakistani woman to marry man of her choice and no one has right to force woman to marry a man for whom she did not consent.
Women lawyers, however, demanded fixing a certain ratio of women judges in all courts, including Lahore High Court (LHC). Justice Saqib Nisar of Supreme Court assured all out help to women in the cases involving rights of women. Asma Jahangir and other women lawyers addressing the seminar were of the view that yet women in the country do not have equal opportunity to make their place in various fields of life including judiciary.
Asma said women lawyers are working in unfriendly discriminatory environment in the courts. She further said that family laws are messy due to which in cases of dissolution of marriage, khula and custody of children women were running from pillar to the post to get justice from the courts. She demanded that in all legal departments, such as office of Attorney General of Pakistan, Advocate General of Punjab and prosecutor general there should be representative of women to break hegemony of male lawyers.
SCBA president also announced that SCBA would set up a committee to help women in the legal battle for their rights whatsoever. Justice Saqib Nisar of the Supreme Court in his speech conveyed the message of Chief Justice Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry assuring that judiciary is there to give all out help to women in the battle for their legal rights.
Justice Nisar quoted CJP as saying "judiciary will give all out help to women of this country and eradicate all sort of discrimination against them at the hands of men". Justice Nisar appreciated Asma Jahangir for her struggle for rights of women urged women to wage struggle for their rights and make their place in society like Asma. The judges urged girls and women at large to get more power of education and knowledge to move ahead in the life.
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