Daily Times

The son of former prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani has responded to allegations by US columnist Cynthia Ritchie who has accused senior members of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) of rape and sexual assault.

Ali Haider Gilani, the younger son of former the prime minister, said he had filed a complaint against the Cyber Crime Wing of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) over “baseless allegations” against party leader late Benazir Bhutto.

He said this prompted the American columnist to level “filthy allegations” against his father.

“First of all I would like to make it very clear that my father is a man of great integrity and has respected every woman he ever met. I have never heard him even speak to a lady in a loud voice at home or outside. He is a champion of women’s rights and has always advocated for women empowerment,” said the younger Gilani.

He claimed that Cynthia Ritchie had herself told him a few months back in 2019 on a public WhatsApp group that “she met my father few days back and he was a true gentleman and wanted to inquire about his health.

Notably, Cynthia D. Ritchie has claimed that Rehman Malik, then Pakistani interior minister, raped her after lacing her drink with sedatives in 2011. She also accused former Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani and former health minister Makhdoom Shahabuddin of physically manhandling her inside President’s House in Islamabad. Asif Ali Zardari was then President of Pakistan.

The Bilawal Bhutto Zardari-led party now faces allegations of serious misconduct as alleged by Cynthia D. Ritchie after the party filed a case against her for maligning the name of its assassinated leader Benazir Bhutto.

In a Facebook live video (available below) on Friday evening, the American blogger who has made Pakistan her second home, said, she was raped by former Interior Minister Rehman Malik and physically manhandled by former Health Minister Makhdoom Shahabuddin and former Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani.

She said she still has evidence that could prove her allegations and promised to come out with it as early as next week. “I will be happy to go into more detail with an appropriate, neutral, and investigative journalist,” she said.