ISLAMABAD: Senator Rehman Malik has challenged the Islamabad High Court (IHC) order in Cynthia Ritchie's rape case and setting aside of the Justice of Peace order. The Pakistan Peoples Party Senator on Monday filed an appeal through advocate Sardar Latif Khosa in the Supreme Court and made Cynthia Ritchie and Justice and Peace, Islamabad, SP Complaint and SHO Secretariat as respondents.
Cynthia Ritchie, a US blogger, who is on business visa in Pakistan, on social media, levelled "absurd and wild" allegations against former Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto (late).
Latif Khosa stated that the petitioner being senator and Chairman of Senate Committee for Interior took notice of this "uncalled for situation", and called reports from the concerned institutions.
As this factum of issuance of notice by the petitioner against Cynthia came to light, she through social medial leveled a "false and fabricated" allegation against Rehman Malik that he had raped her in 2011.
She also lodged similar allegations against Makhdoom Shahabud Din, ex-minister for health and former Prime Minister, Yousaf Raza Gilani. She subsequently lodged a complaint against Senator Rehman Malik at Police Station Secretariat for registration of a criminal case against him.
The police found the contents of the complaint absolutely "false and baseless", and refused to register a case against the petitioner. Cynthia Ritichie approached District and Sessions Court, Islamabad, seeking direction to police to register the case against Rehman Malik. However, the Additional Sessions Judge (Justice of Peace) dismissed her application. Feeling aggrieved by the order, Cynthia filed a writ petition in IHC, which set aside the order of Justice of Peace.
Latif Khosa said the writ petition under Article 199 was not maintainable, adding Cynthia petition suffered from laches and last week the Ministry of Interior refused to extend her visa and ordered her to leave Pakistan within 15 days.
He submitted that on 3rd September the petition was fixed before IHC Justice Amir Farooq. But the case was pulled out from the court of Justice Amir Farooq in an evening and fixed before the Chief Justice IHC Athar Minallah without giving any notice to the respondents. The petitioner counsel was not even given chance to explain the situation, but the IHC CJ did not listen to him and passed the order.
The petitioner told that Cynthia gave statement that she would be hitting the PPP, the PML-N, and the PTI leaders, which was a clear indication that she was here to hit the political hierarchy of Pakistan with some "ulterior motives".
There was nothing on record to counter the reports of the IO and the SP complaint. However, the IHC failed to appreciate the findings of the investigative agency and allowed the writ petitioner in a manner not warranted by law. He prayed that leave to appeal be granted.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020