Former interior minister and Chairman Senate Standing Committee on Interior Rehman Malik on Saturday decided to not pursue criminal and civil cases against US blogger Cynthia Dawn Ritchie "after his vindication from the competent court from alleged charges".
The senior PPP leader, in his tweets, announced that he will not pursue the pending cases against her in "good faith".
""I with humble nature do not claim victory as it is evident that the lady in question being under pressure from inamical elements was forced into levelling these insinuations against me," said the statement issued by the PPP leader's spokesperson.
Malik added that the allegations were levelled against him after he took notice of derogatory remarks against his party's slain chairperson Benazir Bhutto by the foreign blogger.
The PPP leader said further that all of Cynthia's allegations were dismissed twice by a justice of peace, district and session court Islamabad and also by the police.
On June 17, Cynthia had filed an application with the Secretariat Police Station, accusing Malik of raping her at his residence in 2011. Additional District and Sessions Judge (ADSJ) Nasir Javed Rana had, however, dismissed the petition.
The blogger had moved the IHC against the verdict and IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah issued a six-page order, allowing the petition and setting aside the sessions court order.
Malik had served a defamation notice to Cynthia and had also filed a Rs500 million defamation suit against the US blogger through his lawyer in the Supreme Court.
The second defamation notice to Cynthia had been sent for repeating her allegation while speaking on TV channels. It read that Cynthia appeared on two talks shows on different private TV channels on June 7 and levelled “false, bogus and malicious allegations of rape” against Malik.
On September 4, the Federal Ministry of Interior had admitted that authorities twice issued business visa to the US blogger – respectively in 2018 and 2019 – in violation of the policy during a hearing of her case in the Islamabad High Court (IHC).
The court also stopped US blogger Cynthia Dawn Ritchie’s deportation after she was given 15 days to leave the country by the interior ministry.
