Pakistan's judicial commission on Thursday confirmed the nomination of the first female Supreme Court judge in the Muslim-majority nation's history, an action that ruling party members and legal experts said all but ensured her appointment.

A commission has decided on the promotion of the judges voted to make 55-year-old justice Ayesha Malik the first female judge on the Supreme Court in the 75 years since the South Asian Country's independence.

The next step is a parliamentary panel where the ruling party has more than enough members to affirm her appointment, said Zahrah Vayani of the Women Lawyers Association. She said Thursday's action effectively "is an appointment more than a nomination."

"An important & defining moment in our country as a brilliant lawyer & decorated judge has become Pakistan 's first female SC judge (sic)," a legislator of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf and parliamentary secretary for law Maleeka Bokhari posted on Twitter.

Though historical, the move has been divisive. The nine-member body that was to confirm her appointment turned down her elevation to the top court last year, and following this Thursday, repeat vote was close- divided five votes to four- according to the sources familiar with the proceedings.

In the forum and outside, many lawyers and even judges said Malik's selection was made in contravention of seniority lists. Malik was not among the top three most senior lower court judges from which she was elevated.

"The major issue is not that there was ever a question mark on justice Ayesha Malik's competence or the fact that she is a good judge," Imaan Mazari-Hazir, an Islamabad-based lawyer and vocal rights activist, told Reuters.

"The question mark was and remained on the judicial commission's arbitrary and non-transparent decision making and the process," she said, adding the judge's gender was exploited.

A bunch of lawyers' bodies has threatened to strike and boycott the proceedings by saying their calls for the drafting of fixed criteria for the nomination of Supreme Court of turn, and the appointment of the female judge is an excellent step in the right direction."

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(With help from Agencies.)