Justice Miss Aalia Neelum nominated as CJ LHC

ISLAMABAD, July 02 (SABAH): Justice Miss Aalia Neelum has been nominated as the chief justice (CJ) of the Lahore High Court (LHC) in a first event of a woman judge being named for the post.

The jurist was unanimously nominated by the Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP) during a meeting headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Qazi Faez Isa on Tuesday.

Justice Aalia is third in the seniority list of the LHC after the elevation of former LHC CJ Malik Shahzad Ahmad Khan and Justice Shahid Bilal Hassan to the Supreme Court.

After Justice Shahzad’s elevation, Justice Shujaat Ali Khan had been appointed as the acting CJ for the high court by President Asif Ali Zardari under Article 196.

Meanwhile, Justice Shafi Muhammad Siddiqui was also unanimously nominated for post of Sindh High Court (SHC) top judge.

The slot was vacated after former SHC CJ Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi’s elevation as a top court judge with Justice Shahzad and Justice Shahid earlier this month.

Justice Miss Aalia Neelum was born on November 12, 1966. She earned her law degree from Punjab University Law College in 1995 and holds several other legal diplomas.

She began her legal career in 1996 as a registered lawyer and was admitted to the High Court in 1998 and the Supreme Court in 2008. She practiced in various fields, including constitutional, civil, criminal, and anti-terrorism law.

In 2013, Justice Neelum was appointed as an ad-hoc judge of the Lahore High Court and became a permanent judge in 2015. She also established standard operating procedures (SOPs) for recording evidence via video link.

The lady jurist has rendered a number of reported judgments on numerous important issues since her elevation to an LHC bench in 2013.

Besides practicing judiciary dealing with criminal, civil and anti-terrorism laws, Justice Aalia also performed as a focal person for gender-based violence courts among other works.