Justice Musarrat Hilali, the second woman ever elevated to Pakistan’s Supreme Court, formally retired from the bench on August 7, 2026, after reaching the constitutionally mandated retirement age of 65. Her departure was marked by a full court reference in Islamabad and a separate farewell reception in Karachi, both attended by Chief Justice of Pakistan Yahya Afridi and senior judges who paid tribute to her three-decade legal career.
Background
Justice Hilali’s path to the country’s highest court began decades before her elevation. Born in Peshawar on August 8, 1961, she earned her law degree from Khyber Law College at the University of Peshawar and was enrolled as an advocate of the district courts in 1983. She was enrolled as an advocate of the High Court in 1988 and was elevated to the rank of advocate of the Supreme Court in 2006. Long before she joined the bench, Hilali built a reputation through bar politics and public service. She became the first elected female secretary of the Peshawar Bar Association from 1988 to 1989, served twice as its vice president between 1992 and 1994, and became its first female general secretary from 1997 to 1998, later becoming the first woman twice elected as an executive member of the Supreme Court Bar Association. She was also appointed as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s first female Additional Advocate General from November 2001 to March 2004, and served as the first woman Chairperson of the province’s Environmental Protection Tribunal as well as its first female Ombudsperson for Protection against Harassment of Women in the Workplace.
Details
Hilali’s judicial career formally began in 2013. She was elevated to the bench as an additional judge of the Peshawar High Court in March 2013 and was confirmed as a permanent judge in 2014, remaining the only woman on that bench for the following decade. A decade later, she made history again. On April 1, 2023, Justice Hilali became the first woman acting chief justice of the Peshawar High Court, and was confirmed as its permanent chief justice roughly six weeks later, becoming only the second woman in Pakistan’s history to lead a provincial high court after Justice Tahira Safdar of the Balochistan High Court. Her tenure as chief justice was brief but significant, since it directly preceded her elevation to the country’s apex court. Her name was recommended for the Supreme Court by then senior puisne judge Qazi Faez Isa, who wrote to the Judicial Commission of Pakistan in May 2023 proposing her elevation alongside Sindh High Court Chief Justice Ahmed Ali Sheikh. The commission approved her nomination, and she was sworn in as a Supreme Court judge on July 7, 2023, becoming only the second woman in the court’s 75-year history to reach that position, after Justice Ayesha Malik earlier the same year. As a Supreme Court judge, Hilali sat on several politically significant benches. She was a signatory to the ruling that stripped Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf of its electoral symbol ahead of general elections, and was also part of the bench that later overturned an earlier Supreme Court judgment on reserved seats. These rulings drew both praise and criticism from different quarters of the legal community, with some commentators describing her as a reliably independent voice on the bench, while others were more critical of specific verdicts she signed onto. Her retirement, when it came, followed the constitutional age limit that applies to all Supreme Court judges. Justice Hilali reached the mandatory retirement age of 65 on August 7, 2026, exactly 65 years after her birth in Peshawar, and stepped down from the court on that date. The Supreme Court marked the occasion with a full court reference held at 10:30 a.m. in Courtroom No. 1, attended by Chief Justice of Pakistan Yahya Afridi, sitting Supreme Court judges, the Attorney General for Pakistan, and leaders of the Pakistan Bar Council and Supreme Court Bar Association. A separate farewell reception was also held days earlier in Karachi. The Supreme Court Bar Association organised a farewell reception at its bar room on the premises of the Supreme Court’s Karachi Registry, attended by Chief Justice Yahya Afridi along with Justices Munib Akhtar, Jamal Khan Mandokhel, Muhammad Ali Mazhar and Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi, as well as the Chief Justice of the Sindh High Court. Notably, Justice Hilali chose not to pursue an alternative path that was reportedly available to her before retirement. It was learnt that despite being offered an appointment to the Federal Constitutional Court by the executive, Justice Hilali did not accept it. Following her retirement, Hilali has continued to engage with the legal community she spent decades serving. She attended a Peshawar High Court Bar Association event as chief guest shortly after stepping down, where she credited lawyers as her main source of professional support throughout her career and said she remained proud of the decisions she made on the bench.
Readers searching for details of Justice Hilali’s personal life, including her family background, should note that credible news organisations covering her retirement have focused almost entirely on her professional record. Beyond her date and place of birth, mainstream reporting on her career does not include verified details about her spouse or immediate family, and this article does not speculate beyond what has been confirmed by trusted sources.
Quotes
Chief Justice of Pakistan Yahya Afridi led the tributes at her Islamabad farewell. Afridi described her legacy as one that would be remembered “particularly for women aspiring to leadership roles in the legal profession.” He also said her career stood as “a beacon of the growing participation and leadership of women in Pakistan’s justice sector.” Hilali herself struck a reflective note at a subsequent event with the Peshawar bar. “My strength is the lawyers. They have always supported me,” she told the gathering, adding that she did not pay attention to criticism directed at her online.
Impact
Justice Hilali’s career carries symbolic weight well beyond her individual rulings. As only the second woman to serve on Pakistan’s Supreme Court and the second woman to lead a provincial high court, her tenure has been repeatedly cited by legal commentators and successive chief justices as evidence of slowly widening representation for women within Pakistan’s judiciary — an institution that remains heavily male-dominated at the senior levels. Her retirement also reopens questions about judicial succession within the Supreme Court and the Peshawar High Court specifically, since her seat now needs to be filled through Pakistan’s judicial appointment process involving the Judicial Commission of Pakistan. For Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in particular, her career has often been referenced locally as a marker of the province’s growing representation at the federal judicial level, given that she was the first PHC-origin judge elevated to the Supreme Court under recent commission recommendations.
Conclusion
With Justice Hilali’s retirement now complete, attention within Pakistan’s legal community is likely to shift toward how her vacant Supreme Court seat is filled and which judge from the high courts may be recommended next by the Judicial Commission of Pakistan. Her post-retirement public appearances suggest she intends to remain engaged with the legal profession she spent more than four decades serving, even as she steps back from active adjudication. For now, her record stands as one of the more closely watched judicial careers in recent Pakistani legal history, defined as much by the barriers she broke as by the individual cases she decided.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the salary of a Supreme Court judge in Pakistan?
As of 2026, following a government-approved increase, the Chief Justice of Pakistan receives a monthly salary of Rs1.55 million, while other Supreme Court judges receive Rs1.5 million per month, alongside a monthly medical allowance of Rs150,000. This marks a significant rise from earlier pay scales, where the Chief Justice earned around Rs1.2 million monthly and other judges received approximately Rs1.16 million. Beyond basic salary, Supreme Court judges are also entitled to additional perks including a Superior Judicial Allowance, official vehicles with drivers, fuel allowances, house rent support and daily travel allowances when on official duty, which together substantially increase their total monthly compensation beyond the base salary figure alone.
Who is the youngest Chief Justice of High Court?
Pakistan’s judicial history includes several high court chief justices appointed at relatively young ages, though the specific title of “youngest” can vary depending on the province and the exact criteria used, such as age at appointment versus age at confirmation. Rather than attribute this title to a single individual without full verification, it’s worth noting that Pakistan’s high courts have seen a range of chief justices appointed in their late 40s to mid-50s over the past two decades, reflecting the judiciary’s general seniority-based promotion structure. Readers interested in a specific, verified answer should consult official high court records or Pakistan’s Law and Justice Commission for confirmed appointment dates and ages.
Who is the current Chief Justice of Sindh High Court in 2026?
As of August 2026, Zafar Ahmed Rajput serves as the Chief Justice of the Sindh High Court. He has represented the Sindh High Court at several recent judicial events, including farewell functions held in Karachi for retiring Supreme Court judges, and continues to lead the province’s highest judicial body alongside the Supreme Court’s other senior justices.
