Cynthia Ritchie claims to have been probing anti-Pakistan activities

First it was allegations against Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, then rape accusations against former interior minister Rehman Malik and now, Cynthia D Ritchie, an American national who has lived in Pakistan for nearly a decade has claimed that she had been “investigating” and ethnic organization during her time in Pakistan.

In a letter addressed to Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), Ritchie, 44, said she was a “law abiding resident of Pakistan” and had been “investigating PTM (with the assistance of supporting agencies and the military)” for the past couple of years, which led to unearthing of “links of anti-state activities between PTM and PPP”.

Ritchie says that she has written the letter to clarify her position after Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leaders filed a complaint against her with the FIA for maligning Benazir Bhutto.

Defending her allegation against Bhutto, Ritchie contended the accusation did not fall under the ambit of the defamation law.

In May, Ritchie in a Twitter post alleged that Bhutto would order her guards to “rape” women with whom her husband Asif Ali Zardari had affairs. This led to the PPP demanding that the FIA investigate Ritchie and the terms of her stay in Pakistan for her “very derogatory and slanderous remarks” about Benazir and Zardari.

Ritchie’s claim about working with the military is not exactly new as she has often in the past bragged about her connection with the security establishment and posted pictures on her social media accounts flaunting the privileged access she enjoyed in the host country.

The leaked letter, however, opened floodgates of questions about her activities and their legality, her stay in Pakistan, and her associations.

A source in the interior ministry claimed that she was living in Pakistan on a business visa.

From reports in the Pakistani media, it appears that Ritchie’s first documented visit to Pakistan was in October 2009. She is believed to have obtained a visit visa from Pakistan’s consulate general in Houston on the recommendation of a relative of federal Minister for Narcotics Control Azam Swati, who at that time had vast businesses in Houston.

“She used to live around Port Arthur area in Texas. An hour’s drive from Houston where Azam Swati has lots of businesses. His son was city councilman there recently and his daughters and grandkids still live there and run his businesses,” a Pakistani American, who didn’t want to named, recalled.

Later on, Azam Swati reportedly helped her socialize in Pakistan and develop local contacts. Interestingly, during her very first visit she met Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) leaders in November 2009. After the meeting, Ritchie had tweeted: “Met leaders of the MQM movement. If you enjoy int’l politics, I would encourage u (you) to read about this party”.

Ritchie made connections in Pakistan through Houston-based Pakistani expatriates. In this regard, the role of Illinois-based Association of Physicians of Pakistani Descent of North America was important. Her first two jobs in Pakistan starting October 2010 were at organizations, owned/managed by US-based Pakistani doctors, the Omair-Sana Foundation and Humanity Hope.

She again surfaced on the radar around the May 2011 raid by US Special Forces in Abbottabad on OBL hideout when she gave media interviews and indicated her plans for staying in Pakistan for another couple of years.

She then got a two-year work visa. In an interview at that time, she disclosed that she had got a job with the health ministry for training of doctors to become better communicators. It’s not clear how long her contract continued.

Ritchie then cultivated strong links in the PPP government. In 2011 only, Ritchie accused former Interior Minister Rehman Malik of raping her, and former Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani and another Cabinet Minister of groping her. Both Malik and Gilani have strongly denied the allegations.

It was in 2012 that she began her transition from her activities in the humanitarian and development sector to media projects and her first announced undertakings were about projecting ‘what Pakistanis are doing for Pakistan’ and positively projecting relations between the US and Pakistan.

Ritchie began getting social media fame in 2016 when people started sharing her photos cycling on the streets of Pakistan, mingling with ordinary people. The country was then still grappling with terrorism and was viewed by foreign media as a dangerous place for foreigners to live. Her activities thus helped her project herself as a friend to Pakistan. This turned her into a “social media influencer”.

Her critics, however, say that she focused all her activities on Pakistan’s domestic audience and did little for promoting the country overseas, where the real work of projecting its soft image needed to be done.

In her letter to the FIA, Ritchie while detailing her activities writes: “have been an active force in promoting Positive Pakistan my entire time in Pakistan, including numerous articles I’ve written in eTribune, The News International, and South Asia Magazine. I’ve worked closely with CTD’s, Female Commandos in KP, Highways and Motorways Police, Military, NACTA”.

She did not mention any foreign publication where she has been published or a foreign TV channel on which she appeared for advocating Pakistan. “I wonder who she is influencing,” said a Pakistani working on public diplomacy.