Issuance of warrants for sitting LHC judge: Supreme Court allows Yasmin Abbasey to engage lawyer

Adjourning the hearing of a suo motu case over the warrants against a serving Lahore High Court Judge issued by Federal Ombudsperson against Harassment of Women at Workplace former Justice Yasmin Abbasey the court allowed Abbasey to engage lawyer in the case. On May 11, the Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali took suo motu action under Article 184(3) of the Constitution on press clipping of a newspaper containing the story captioned as "Ombudsperson issues warrant for judge a day after apology".
According to the news report, Federal Ombudsperson for Protection against Harassment of Women at Workplace had issued a warrant for the arrest of serving Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah one day after she tendered an unconditional apology to the judge for her 'contemptuous' conduct. During the course of proceedings, Yasmin Abbasey informed the bench that the suo motu action cannot be decided without hearing a petition, early filed by her, wherein jurisdiction of courts is challenged.
She pleaded that LHC was time and again granting interim relief to male lawyers despite the matter of harassment against them was pending adjudication before her. She said that LHC on January 11 of 2016 suspended her judgement and interim order. She pleaded that High Court has exercised its powers beyond its jurisdiction which is illegal adding that she has filed a petition in Supreme Court, wherein she has challenged jurisdiction of courts.
She argued that there is bar of jurisdiction for constitutional courts under section 18 of Federal Ombudsman Institutional Reforms Act 2013. She pleaded before the court to fix the petition wherein she has challenged jurisdiction of courts for deciding suo motu case. The Supreme Court clubbed the petition with suo motu notice and adjourned the hearing. The court also suspended warrant against serving judge till final disposal of the case. Hearing of the matter was adjourned till second week of June.