Barrister Ayesha Siddique Khan is enrolled as advocate High Court and is the chairperson of Gender and Human Rights Committee of Islamabad High Court Bar Association. She is a Chevening scholar and alumna of SUSI 2009, a student exchange program funded by the US State Department.
Barrister Ayesha Siddique Khan started her legal career as a human rights lawyer and as fellow of Bertha Foundation, a UK based legal aid charity. Her work focused on providing pro bono litigation on human rights issues including amounts other issues death row convicts and gender justice. During this fellowship she challenged the fixation of gender quotas by PMDC for medical students which was indirectly discriminatory towards the female students as on open merit females were securing more seats than on a fixed gender quota which aimed at reducing women representation in medical colleges as it was misconceived that since most women do not practice after completing their medical studies, the gender quotas could help allocation of some seats to male students who would end up practicing .
Ms. Khan has been awarded fellowships and scholarships by the governments of US, Sweden, and UK for her work in fields of human rights. She was awarded Chevening scholarship in year 2016 to study M.Sc. in international Politics at SOAS, London. Ms Khan was twice invited to deliver TEDx talks in London on gender related issues. In light of her contributions towards advocating for a more gender equal legal profession, she was nominated as Chairperson Legal Education and Gender Committee of Islamabad High Court Bar Association in previous term and is currently the Chairperson Gender and Human Rights Committee of the same association. Ms. Khan is a staunch believer and advocate for a just and fair world where no one is discriminated against in any form or manifestation on the basis of gender.
More power to you, Ayesha. Keep shining.
