'He's a British National': Pakistan Rejects UK's Bid to Deport Grooming Gang Ringleader

Pakistan has pushed back against British attempts to deport Shabir Ahmed, the ringleader of the Rochdale grooming gang, saying the matter is entirely an internal affair of the United Kingdom and that Islamabad has no connection whatsoever with the case.

Tahir Andrabi, a spokesman for Pakistan's Ministry of External Affairs, told the BBC that Ahmed must be dealt with in accordance with UK law, describing his crimes as heinous and demanding serious introspection rather than a search for external causes. "The individual concerned is a British national who spent his entire adult life in the UK and was duly convicted by a British court for reprehensible offences committed on British soil," Andrabi said, adding that responsibility lay with the country where Ahmed grew up and was raised.

Ahmed, who arrived in Britain in the late 1960s, was one of nine men from Rochdale and Oldham convicted in 2012 of exploiting girls as young as thirteen at two takeaway restaurants. He was jailed for 22 years and released on licence this month, after which he was placed in 24-hour staffed accommodation and fitted with a GPS tag. His victims said they felt frightened and unsafe following his release.

Legal barrier complicates deportation

Ahmed had dual British-Pakistani citizenship before his UK passport was revoked following his conviction. However, provisions under the Immigration Act 1971 bar the removal of Commonwealth citizens who arrived in Britain before 1973 and had lived in the country for at least five years, leaving the government legally unable to deport him under current legislation.

The UK government has proposed amending the law so that foreign nationals convicted of serious crimes would no longer benefit from those protections, bringing deportation rules in line with the existing law on the removal of citizenship. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said the 1971 Act should not be used as a bar against removal in cases such as Ahmed's. The Home Office has, however, acknowledged that his deportation ultimately depends on Pakistan agreeing to accept him, which Islamabad has now made clear it is unwilling to do.

Andy Burnham, who is due to succeed Sir Keir Starmer as prime minister later this month, described Ahmed as a vile criminal and said he wanted him deported.