In a shocking development, a former prime minister (PM) and two of his cabinet members have been accused of manhandling and sexually assaulting Islamabad-based United States (US) blogger nine years ago.
As per the details, Cynthia Dawn Ritchie has accused some of the top Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leaders of subjecting her to the treatment during the party’s third tenure in Centre from 2008 to 2013, also alleging that PPP stalwart and then federal minister for interior Rehman Malik raped her — an accusation denied by both Malik and then PM Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani.
The accusation comes a week after the blogger posted some controversial tweets involving slain former PM Benazir Bhutto which attracted a load of criticism and cyberharassment both from party’s local leadership and its support base.
READ: PPP writes to ISI chief for action against Pakistan-based US blogger over tweet about Benazir Bhutto
“In 2011, I was raped by the former interior minister Rehman Malik. That’s right, I’ll say it again. I was raped by the then interior minister Rehman Malik,” Ritchie said in the live video on her Facebook page.
She also accused former prime minister Yousaf Raza Gillani and former federal minister Makhdoom Shahabuddin of “physically manhandling” her while the former was staying at the “President’s House”.
Ritchie said she was reserving “some of the more graphic details” because her audience could include children, but added that she would be “happy to go into more detail” with neutral investigative journalists.
The blogger alleged that she has endured harassment “primarily from the PPP” for a number of years now. “I have received countless threats against my life, rape threats, claims that PPP has my father,” she claimed, adding that she has “evidentiary support” of everything she has been posting.
Ritchie also said she had informed about the incident to “someone” at the US Embassy in 2011, “but due to ‘fluid’ situation and ‘complex’ relations between US and Pakistan, [the] response was less than adequate”.
The US embassy in Pakistan has not reacted to the claims as of yet.
ACCUSED DENY CLAIMS:
In their responses, both Gillani and Malik strongly denied the accusations.
Gilani said that he even considered responding to such allegations “humiliation and disgrace”.
Talking to a private news channel on Friday, the former premier questioned as to what Richie was doing at the Presidency when she was allegedly manhandled, and why she had been staying in Pakistan.
Interestingly, it was Gillani himself who in 2010, through the Ministry of Interior which was then headed by Malik, empowered then Pakistan ambassador in Washington Hussain Haqqani to directly issue diplomatic visas to Americans without clearance of relevant authorities.
The former premier further alleged that the blogger had come to Pakistan as part of a campaign to malign politicians.
Gillani claimed that Ritchie was maligning him because his two sons had filed a defamation case against her for her allegedly defamatory tweet against Benazir.
The PPP has also lodged a complaint with the cybercrime wing of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) against her for making “extremely derogatory and slanderous remarks” against Benazir.
Malik, in his response, called the allegations “baseless, shameful, and inappropriate”.
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In a statement issued by his spokesperson, the former minister said that the purpose behind the allegations was to damage the reputation of the PPP leader.
While support pours in for the US blogger, a number of people are also engaging in war of words over social media over the validity of her claims.
