ISLAMABAD: Taking notice of the issuance of arrest warrants for a sitting high court judge, Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali on Wednesday summoned the Federal Ombudsper­son for Protection against Harass­ment of Women at Workplace for May 17.

The Supreme Court also suspended the purported arrest warrants issued by Ombudsperson Yasmin Abbasi for senior puisne judge of the Lahore High Court Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, a day after she had tendered an unconditional apology for her ‘contemptuous’ conduct.

The ombudsperson had also directed the Punjab police chief to ensure the judge’s presence in her office.

Chief Justice Jamali directed the court office to fix the matter before a bench and issue a notice to Yasmin Abbasi for her personal appearance on the day of the hearing. Attorney General Ashtar Ausaf was asked to assist the court in the matter.

Summons federal ombudsperson on May 17

Ms Abbasi had served as judge of the Sindh High Court as well as law secretary during the last PPP government. She had to quit as SHC judge against the backdrop of the famous July 31, 2009, judgement which had declared the Nov 3, 2007, emergency illegal and unconstitutional.

An inquiry committee had held her responsible for the missing record and documents relating to the $60 million graft cases revived by the Swiss authorities against former president Asif Ali Zardari.

On Nov 27, 2013, Ms Abbasi had filed a reference with President Mamnoon Hussain, requesting him to invoke the jurisdiction of the Supreme Judicial Council and try former chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and six other judges who had issued the Nov 3, 2007, order restraining the armed forces and government officials from implementing then military ruler Gen Pervez Musharraf’s emergency rule as well as the judges from taking oath under the Provisional Constitution Order.

Justice Mansoor Shah had dropped the contempt proceedings against Yasmin Abbasi after she tendered an unconditional apology. The contempt hearing against the ombudsperson for her refusal to appear before the judge was held in the latter’s chamber on Monday. The AG and IG Punjab ware also present.

The high court order said the respondent (ombudsperson) had thrown herself at the mercy of the court and submitted an unconditional apology. It said the respondent had assured the court that no such unfortunate incident would be repeated and that she would act in accordance with the law and render the highest respect to the constitutional courts all times.

The order observed that under the constitutional scheme, all sub-constitutional courts/tribunals were subordinate to the constitutional courts and that the power of contempt enjoyed by the federal ombudsperson was a sub-constitutional jurisdiction and could not be exercised against the constitutional courts.

But on Tuesday, only a day after the high court judgement, the ombudsperson held a proceeding on the show-cause notice issued earlier to Justice Shah and held in her order that the high court judge had acted in utter violation of the Supreme Court’s order that enjoined the avoidance of unpleasant situation.

“Resultantly the contempt notice issued on May 10 to Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah for his appearance needs compliance as per law,” the order said.

In her order, the ombudsperson regretted that during the in-camera proceedings before the high court judge, the dignity of the office of the federal ombudsperson was greatly compromised and her institution was undermined in an unprecedented manner hitherto unknown to the judicial history of the country.

Ms Abbasi said she did not tender any unconditional apology to the judge but was made to sign a statement prepared by the attorney general under “an atmosphere of extreme duress”.

Published in Dawn, May 12th, 2016