The Rising Star in the Pakistani legal domain on her unparalleled career path in litigation, women’s activism and law student enablement – Khushbakht Shah Jillani.
It started from home when by virtue of her gender she was denied opportunities that were easily available to her brothers. When she grew up she saw this phenomenon repeating itself in society and she saw gross injustices happening to women all around. This sad realization led her to choose the law and she pledged to fight for all the women who are victims of discrimination and abuse.
Her entry into the legal profession enabled her to take cases pertaining to domestic violence and family laws and she got the opportunity to represent women who were denied their equal rights under the constitution of Pakistan. In her legal practice and work towards attaining women’s rights, she realized that many victims are unaware of the law which stops them from knocking on the doors of court for justice. Hence to address that she decided to launch an organization Adal Aur Sehat which houses two pilot projects under it namely the Legal Aid Bureau and the Legislation and Policy Clinic. She worked to create legal awareness, affect policy reform for better laws in place, and provide legal aid to vulnerable and disadvantaged women.
For her efforts in the legal field, she won the first runner-up award in the category of Rising Star of the Year by the Ministry of Law and Justice, and she was featured by the Asia Law Portal as one of the 30 lawyers to watch out for in 2022 in Asia. Khushbakht Shah Jillani intends to celebrate women every day and urge them to collectively fight the regressive norms in the society which keep women away from countless opportunities. We are in this together!
