Justice Musarrat Hilali formally retired from her role at the Supreme Court on Friday, June 7, 2024. A full court reference was held in her honor, presided over by Chief Justice Yahya Afridi. Nine judges attended the ceremony at the Supreme Court’s principal seat in Islamabad, while an additional seven judges participated remotely—four from Karachi and three from Lahore via video link.
During the reference, Additional Attorney General Aamir Rehman read a message from Attorney General Mansoor Usman Awan, highlighting Justice Hilali’s pioneering achievements. Notably, she was the first woman to serve as Chief Justice of the Peshawar High Court. The message also recalled several of her significant judicial rulings, including her decision to invalidate an earlier order that barred civilian trials in military courts. She also opposed suspending military court verdicts during an intra-court appeal, emphasizing the right of convicted individuals to appeal such decisions.
Another key ruling by Justice Hilali stated that a suit for dissolution of marriage (tanseekh-e-nikah) could not be converted into a khula plea. Her judicial contributions extended to a December 13, 2024 Supreme Court order, where she was part of the bench that conditionally allowed military courts to issue verdicts against civilians tried over the May 9, 2023 riots. This decision sparked considerable debate among legal circles and human rights advocates.
Critics argued that the order diluted the issue without resolving its legality, with some suggesting that granting bail would have been a fairer interim measure. The ruling was also seen as a direct outcome of the 26th Amendment, marking the first time military trials were permitted during peacetime rather than under martial law or emergency conditions. Legal experts expressed concern that this reversal undermined judicial independence and constitutional protections for civilians, describing it as a troubling precedent.
Justice Hilali’s career began in Peshawar, where she was born on August 8, 1961, into a family with strong activist roots; her father Mir Hilali was involved with the Khudai Khedmatgar movement. She earned her law degree from Khyber Law College, University of Peshawar, enrolling as an advocate in district courts in 1983. She advanced to the high court bar in 1988 and the Supreme Court bar in 2006.
She broke several gender barriers throughout her legal career, becoming the first female Secretary of the Peshawar Bar Association (1988-1989), serving twice as its Vice President (1992-1994), and later as its first female General Secretary (1997-1998). She was also elected twice as an Executive Member of the Supreme Court Bar Association (2007-2009). Her trailblazing roles included being Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s first female Additional Advocate General (2001-2004), first female Chairperson of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Environmental Protection Tribunal, and the province’s inaugural female Ombudsperson for Protection against Harassment of Women at the Workplace.
Justice Hilali was appointed as an Additional Judge of the Peshawar High Court on March 26, 2013, and confirmed as a permanent judge on March 13, 2014. Throughout her career, she participated in international legal seminars in the United States, United Kingdom, Japan, Singapore, Nepal, and India.
In 2023, she achieved several historic milestones: she became the first woman to serve as Acting Chief Justice of the Peshawar High Court on April 1 and was formally sworn in as Chief Justice on May 12. On July 7, 2023, she was sworn in as a judge of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, becoming only the second woman in the court’s 75-year history to reach this position and the first woman from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to do so.
