Court reserves judgment on application against Cynthia Ritchie

ISLAMABAD. Additional District and Sessions Judge (ASJ) Jahangir Awan on Saturday reserved judgment on an application seeking a case against US blogger Cynthia Ritchie who has levelled harassment allegations against the PPP leadership, reported The News.

During the hearing yesterday, Ritchie’s lawyer asked the court not to file a case. The court had reserved its judgment until June 15.

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) have requested the court to dismiss the plea against the US blogger.

The FIA told the court that the petitioner was not the targeted victim or guardian of the victim so the agency could not lodge a complain. On the other hand, the counsel for the petitioner argued that due to the nature of tweets, the PPP was the aggrieved party.

To this, the court asked why the heirs of late Benazir Bhutto were not lodging a complain.

The petitioner – PPP Islamabad President Shakeel Abbasi – took the position that Ritchie had made baseless allegations against ex-prime minister Benazir Bhutto Shaheed and a case should be registered against her.

In her video message earlier this month, Ritchie had accused senior PPP leader Senator Rehman Malik of abusing her and said that the incident happened in 2011 when Malik was interior minister.

She also claimed that former health minister Makhdoom Shahabuddin had also abused her, while former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani shook hands with him while he was in the Presidency.