OUR constitution (Article 25) stipulates: “All citizens are equal before the law”. As a result of this, women’s access to judicial bodies is increasing day by day. Nowadays women judges serve in diverse courts in the country, Federal Shariat Court, high courts, district and sessions courts, banking courts, accountability courts, etc.
In spite of these achievements, women face considerable problems within the judicial and legal system. It is a fact that women are still underrepresented in judicial and legal decision-making positions; and courts and court complexes are still men’s domain. While calls for greater women’s representation within the judicial system, both as judges and paralegal staff, are heard loudly in the public space.
One must pay tribute to family judges from all over Pakistan who spared no effort to dispense swifter justice in family-related matters, despite a plethora of problems and challenges, by being pragmatic, daring and resourceful.
Family court judges’ position is more important and more sensitive because they have to deal with ‘family matters’, such as preservation of family or otherwise, voluntary marriage, divorce, child custody and child support.
Family is the fundamental unit of any society. I request family court judges to take all those side-effects, after-effects and ramification into account while dealing with family matter cases. If they fall short of justice in any case or defeat the spirit of the family laws, then this miscarriage of justice will have disastrous consequences not only on victims’ families but also on society as a whole.
Hashim Abro
Islamabad
