Cynthia’s rape allegations

The non-stop argument between United States columnist Cynthia D. Ritchie and controversial Pakistan People’s Party has reached another level. In a shocking development, the US blogger has accused senior Pakistan Peoples’ Party leaders of molesting her in 2011. The US blogger was already at the centre of a controversy last week when she tweeted about slain former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.

She accused former interior minister Senator Rehman Malik of having raped her in Islamabad in 2011. She also accused former federal minister Makhdoom Shahabuddin and ex-prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani of “physically manhandling” her. She has also been sharing scandalous photographs of PPP leaders on her Twitter account from the past few days. The blogger went a mile more and claimed that she had evidence of what she had posted about the PPP in past days and asserted that all that is true.

These levels of allegations started a debate on Twitter. Some of the pro-feminist types showed support to her and started accusing the PPP leadership. On the other side, some intellectual people demand an inquiry in this regard.

In Pakistan, everyone is frustrated. We don’t wait. We just rushed towards a conclusion. There are thousands of rape cases pending in different courts of the country. Many girls and women are waiting for their justice and the so-called activist doesn’t raise voices for them. Pakistan is a Muslim state and when considering grievous rape issues it fell under the world`s worst ten countries.

In the first 60 days of 2020, as many as 73 incidents of rape have been reported, including 5 gang-rape cases. As per the police record, 10 cases of gang rape were registered in 2019 while the number for the first two months of this year is five. There is no respect or justice for women at all.

We don’t know what happened with Cynthia. But, if this vicious incident happened then the culprit should be detained and punished. And if not, then there should be strict action against the blogger for defaming the personalities.