IHC accepts Cynthia, Malik’s settlement pleas

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday accepted pleas from Senator Rehman Malik and US blogger Cynthia Dawn Ritchie for the withdrawal of cases against each other.

The pleas were heard by Justice Aamir Farooq of the IHC.

During the hearing, Cynthia’s counsel Imran Feroz Malik adopted the stance that his client had directed him to withdraw the case against Malik.

Malik’s counsel also pleaded the court to retract the application against Cynthia, which the court accepted.

Cynthia had accused Malik of raping her during the PPP tenure whereas the senator had served defamation notice to the US blogger.

Both, Malik and Cynthia, had filed separate applications against the Justice of Peace decision.

Last year, the Supreme Court rejected Malik’s appeal and upheld September 1 directive of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) about remanding back for review to Justice of Peace the matter involving registration of a First Information Report (FIR) against Cynthia.

Earlier, Additional District and Sessions Judge Nasir Javed Rana, in his capacity as the Justice of Peace, had dismissed the US blogger’s petition under sections 22-A and 22-B of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898 (CrPC), seeking a directive for police to register a criminal case against Malik.

But on September 1, the IHC ordered that the matter concerning the registration of an FIR over rape allegations be referred back to the justice of peace for review.

Senior counsel Sardar Latif Khosa, who represented Malik before the apex court, argued that the directive to the Justice of Peace to review the earlier directive would encourage the tendency of pointing fingers by hurling allegations and stigmatising anyone, be it the premier or any other important personality.

The petition alleged that the high court failed to appreciate that there was no supporting evidence with the complaint, like the medico-legal report, chemical examiner’s report or the DNA report, adding that the justice of peace was within his right to dismiss the application by declaring it as false.