PESHAWAR, Feb 2: The Peshawar High Court on Thursday sought comments from the NWFP government on a writ petition seeking quota for women in judicial services. Lawyer Amna Bibi of Malakand has filed the plea, requesting the court to direct the government to set a quota for women on the pattern of reserved seats in parliament, provincial assemblies and local governments.

A two-member bench of Justice Ijazul Hassan and Justice Saleem Khan issued notice to the government after preliminary hearing of the petition.

Advocate Abdul Lateef Afridi appeared for the petitioner and contended that during the last couple of years, the government had reserved seats for women on different forums. It should adopt the same policy in judicial services, he said.

The petitioner stated that she was a practising lawyer and had appeared in the NWFP Public Service Commission examination held last year for the posts of judicial officers. She passed the examination and stood 12th in her zone.

The petitioner stated that she could not qualify for the post due to less number of seats in the said zone. She added that no women had been appointed civil judge-cum-judicial magistrate from the zone, which was against the ongoing government policy of encouraging women in different sectors.

Mr Afridi argued that under Article 51 of the Constitution, 60 seats of the 332 had been reserved for women.

He pointed out that under Article 106, seats had been reserved for women in the four provincial assemblies, including 22 in the NWFP Assembly. About 25 to 30 per cent seats had been reserved for women in parliament and the provincial assemblies.

The counsel contended that in the devolution of power plan, the new local government system had been introduced wherein about 33 per cent seats had been reserved for women in the district, town, tehsil and union councils.