Verdict on filing of criminal case against US blogger today

Earlier, PTA expressed its inability to proceed against Cynthia

ISLAMABAD: The additional district and sessions judge (ADSJ) of Islamabad will announce judgement on a petition seeking registration of a criminal case against US blogger Cynthia Dawn Ritchie on Monday (today).

The verdict, which had been reserved on Saturday, will be announced by ADSJ Jahangir Awan.

On Saturday, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) expressed its inability before the court to proceed against Cynthia.

The PTA took the stance that the authority lacked the jurisdiction to proceed against an individual over an alleged controversial tweet.

The PTA, however, suggested that in case there was any criminality related to the US blogger’s official social media accounts then there was a cybercrime wing of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to handle this.



On June 9, the FIA had asked an Islamabad sessions court to dismiss a plea against Cynthia for her slanderous tweets about Benazir Bhutto, contending that the petitioner, PPP Islamabad President Shakeel Abbasi, was not an affected party.

The FIA, in its written response to the court, argued that according to its rules, only the aggrieved party — the targeted victim or their guardian — could lodge such a complaint with the agency.



The PPP’s Islamabad president, Advocate Raja Shakeel Abbasi, had filed the petition before Additional District and Sessions Judge Atta Rabbani under Section 22-A of the Criminal Procedure Code, seeking registration of a first information report (FIR) against the US blogger for allegedly defaming the slain PPP chairperson and former prime minister Benazir Bhutto on social media.