PESHAWAR, Aug 13: Justice Khalida Rachid of the Peshawar High Court was given a formal farewell on the eve of her departure for Tanzania to sit as a judge on the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) here on Wednesday.

Justice Khalida Rachid is the first woman judge from the NWFP, who was appointed as judge of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on July 7. She will serve in this capacity for four years.

At the farewell function, Chief Justice of Peshawar High Court Mr Justice Mian Shakirullah Jan paid rich tribute to the judge. “Justice Khalida has always been the first in almost every walk of her academic and professional life,” Mr Mian Shakirullah Jan said. PHC judges were also present in the function.

“Our province, especially the judiciary, was the first in having the lady civil judge, lady district and sessions judge, a lady elevated as judge of the high court and now, again, the first in having a lady judge honoured with the exalted position of being the judge of an international criminal tribunal,” the PHC chief justice said.

“We, the NWFP judiciary, are pioneers in giving women considerable representation in the judiciary, which amply speaks of the fact that we are neither orthodox nor conservative; we are progressive, rather we are leading in recognizing women’s lofty status of being judges,” Mr Justice Mian Shakirullah said.

He said: “Recently, we have recruited 49 civil judges among whom women’s representation is one-third. In the field, we have female district judge, female additional district judges, female senior civil judges and, of course, a good number of female civil judges.”

When Dawn tried to contact Justice Khalida on phone, her husband said she was not home. Mr Rachid told this correspondent that Justice Khalida had been given the new assignment by Mr Kofi Annan against the Pakistan seat on the ICTR for four years.