Pakistan-based US national accuses PPP leader Rehman Malik of rape

ISLAMABAD (92 News) – Pakistan-based US national Cynthia D Ritchie has accused PPP leader and former interior minister of raping her. In a video broadcast live on Facebook, Ritchie alleged that she was ‘raped by the former Interior Minister Rehman Malik’ in 2011 when the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) was in power. She further claimed that she was “physically manhandled by former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and former health minister Makhdoom Shahabuddin.” She also claimed that everything she has posted in the past few days about the PPP was true and that she had the evidence to prove it. Ritchie said that she would reveal more details about the incident at a later date to a neutral investigative journalist. In a subsequent textual post on Facebook, Ritchie said that the alleged rape incident had occurred at the accused's residence in Islamabad's Minister's Enclave in 2011, ‘around the [time of the] OBL (Osama Bin Laden) incident’. "I thought it was a meeting about my visa but I was given flowers [and] a drugged drink," she claimed, adding that she had ‘kept quiet’ about the incident because ‘who in the [ruling government] would help me against the [accused minister]?’ Reacting to the allegations, former prime minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani rejected the claims of Cynthia D Ritchie, saying it was disgrace to respond to such allegations. “A person of my stature cannot think of it. I may have gone to Presidency to meet the president or with a delegation, and how could such nonsense thing happen there Can a prime minister ever commit such an act at the Aiwan-e-Sadr?" he questioned. He said that Cynthia D Ritchie is defaming Pakistani politicians. “I respect women.” Rehman Malik said that the objective of the allegations of the US woman is to damage his credibility.