The Chief Justice of Pakistan Anwar Zaheer Jamali on Wednesday recused himself from the hearing of a suo motu case over Federal Ombudsperson for Protection against Harassment of Women at Workplace Yasmeen Abbasy' legal authority to issue arrest warrants for a sitting judge of Lahore High Court (LHC).
Earlier, taking a suo motu notice over the issuance of arrest warrants by Yasmeen Abbasy for a serving judge of the LHC, Justice Mansoor Ali Shah on May 12, 2016, Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali dismissed the arrest warrants and issued a notice to Abbasy and Attorney General for Pakistan to appear before the court. Appearing in person before a three-member bench of Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali, Yasmeen Abbasy contended that she was being deprived of her right of hearing in the current matter, adding that she had filed a review petition about changing of counsel in the case but her petition was returned on May 17, 2016.
However, Yasmeen Abbasy failed to respond to the court query that under which authority she was competent to issue arrest warrants for a sitting judge of the LHC to which the court asked her to engage counsel in the case. On Monday, appearing in the matter before a two member judge bench of Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali and Justice Azmat Saeed Sheikh the Ombudsperson raised objection over the presence of the CJP in the bench. To which, the CJP asked that the matter be fixed before any other bench and adjourned the hearing for date in office.