IHC disposes of Rehman Malik’s plea in Cynthia Ritchie case

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday disposed of Senator Abdul Rehman Malik’s intra-court appeal (ICA) seeking quashing of a single member bench verdict in a petition of American blogger Cynthia D Ritchie.

IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah heard the petition filed by Rehman Malik to stop the sessions court to take up the plea of American blogger for registration of a case against him on allegations of physical abuse, following the single member bench’s order of deciding the case within a couple of weeks. Cynthia approached the IHC after the sessions court had last month rejected her plea for registration of a first information report (FIR) against Rehman.

At the outset of proceedings, Rehman’s counsel Irfan Qadir pleaded that the IHC had asked the lower court to hear the American blogger’s petition against the senator for registration of a FIR. To this, the chief justice observed that the court had not passed any direction for lodging of the FIR.

The counsel said that the IHC had sent the case to another judge which meant that the decision of earlier judge was rejected.

The chief justice observed that allegations of serious nature were levelled against the petitioner, who should come up with a formal request for thorough investigation in the matter. There might be a possibility that the entire case was based on baseless allegations, which would have its own consequences, he added.

Irfan agreed with the court that the case should be investigated thoroughly. He claimed that the blogger had tried to mislead the court by hiding facts of the case, which were contrary to the allegations levelled by her in television talks shows.

She alleged that three senior leaders of Pakistan People’s Party had abused her, which was a reaction to the notice taken by the Senate’s Standing Committee on levelling allegations against Benazir Bhutto on her twitter handle, he added.

Underlining the need for a fair trial and transparent investigations into the case, the CJ observed that the court would follow the prescribed law in the case. Rehman was a respectable politician but the court would not hear merits of the case from both sides.

Whether the allegations were true or false, those should be probed thoroughly. The law would take its due course, it added.