Pakistan is resisting attempts by the UK government to deport Shabir Ahmed after his release on licence this month. Tahir Andrabi said Ahmed must be dealt with under UK law and that Pakistan has no connection whatsoever with the dispute.
Ahmed, a freed ringleader of the Rochdale grooming gang, was jailed for 22 years after his 2012 conviction for multiple counts of rape and sexual offences against girls. He had dual British-Pakistani citizenship before he was stripped of his UK passport.
Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Tahir Andrabi, spokesman for Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said to the: "The matter in question is entirely an internal matter of the United Kingdom." He also said: "Any decision regarding his release, supervision of usual legal status, falls exclusively within the jurisdiction of the competent British authorities and must be dealt with in accordance with the laws of the United Kingdom."
Andrabi added: "We cannot be associated with any decisions relating to the individual's release or subsequent treatment under the British law." He also said: "heinous crimes demand serious introspection rather than the quest to search for extraneous causes," and: "Regardless of where he was born, the onus lies on where he grew up, was raised, groomed, and unfortunately spoiled."
Immigration Act 1971
The dispute turns on legislation from 1971 that barred the removal of some Commonwealth citizens who arrived in the United Kingdom before 1973 and had been in the country for five years. Victims of the Rochdale grooming gang were told that protection still applied in Ahmed's case, even after his conviction in 2012 and his 22-year jail sentence.
The UK government wants to amend the law so foreign criminals guilty of some serious crimes cannot benefit from those protections. The proposed change would bring deportation rules into line with the law on the removal of citizenship, which would matter if the UK continues to pursue Ahmed's removal while Pakistan keeps its current position.
Rochdale and Oldham
Ahmed was one of nine men from Rochdale and Oldham found guilty of exploiting girls as young as 13 at two takeaway restaurants. The case now sits between two legal systems: Pakistan says the file belongs inside the United Kingdom, while the UK is trying to change the rules that block deportation.
For anyone following the case in Rochdale and Oldham, the practical question is whether Parliament changes the deportation law before the removal effort collapses into the protections created by the Immigration Act 1971. The next step is the legal one, not a new statement: if the law changes, the UK can press ahead on Ahmed's removal; if it does not, Pakistan's refusal leaves the dispute where Andrabi put it, inside the United Kingdom.
