Pakistan has rebuffed the United Kingdom’s appeal to take back a ringleader of the Rochdale grooming gang during Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar’s meeting with UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office in London on Thursday, according to a report published in the Daily Telegraph by this reporter and Charles Hymas.
Dar told Miliband that there is no existing law or bilateral mechanism between the two countries that would allow for the transfer of child rapists such as Shabir Ahmed to Pakistan.
Ahmed, 73, was freed from prison last month after serving 14 years of his 22-year prison sentence for 30 child rape offences.
The deputy premier said Pakistan would consider the UK’s request, but sources indicated that the only way a deal could be reached was if the British government handed over Pakistani dissidents currently resident in the UK — a move to which the UK is unlikely to agree, the report said.
“We currently do not have any legislation or formal mechanism under which we can take him back,” the Pakistani side told the British officials, according to sources briefed on the discussions.
Shabana Mahmood, the UK home secretary, has announced she will change 50-year-old immigration laws to close a loophole that had prevented the Home Office from deporting the Pakistan-born rapist, even though he had been stripped of his British citizenship. Pakistan, however, is refusing to take him back, saying that he has renounced his Pakistani citizenship, has spent virtually his entire life in the UK, and is therefore Britain’s responsibility.
The Telegraph report said Miliband is understood to have personally raised Ahmed’s case with Dar during talks in London and asked that Pakistan consider taking him back.
The foreign secretary explained the importance of Ahmed’s removal from Britain and conveyed the government’s concerns about the convicted child rapist remaining in the country, said a trusted source, according to the paper.
Pakistani officials acknowledged the UK government’s concerns and the domestic political sensitivities surrounding the case, but made clear that under the existing legal arrangements between the two countries, there is no mechanism through which Pakistan could accept Ahmed.
Pakistan’s position, according to sources familiar with the talks, was that Islamabad had consistently worked closely with the British government on immigration, deportation and criminal matters.
But a Pakistani source said: “Shabir Ahmed’s case is different because he is a convicted child rapist, on the sex offenders register, and there is no treaty between the UK and Pakistan to exchange or extradite sex convicts.”
Miliband was said to have persisted with the issue and asked the Pakistani government to consider whether a way forward could be found, the paper said.
The Pakistani side agreed to consider the British request, but also asked the UK to understand Pakistan’s view and take into account its concerns.
Dar did not spell out those “concerns”, but Pakistan has previously asked the UK to hand over dissidents operating from the UK in exchange for Ahmed.
A formal statement on the talks omitted mention of the Ahmed issue. It said the two sides “reviewed the full spectrum of Pakistan-United Kingdom bilateral relations and agreed to establish a structured mechanism for formal talks between the two foreign ministries to cover all areas of co-operation, to further strengthen bilateral co-operation and regularly review progress in key areas”.
Pakistan has previously warned it would withdraw co-operation in taking back illegal migrants if Britain tried to force it to accept Ahmed. It is understood that Pakistan officials are particularly aggrieved at previous suggestions by government sources that the UK is prepared to impose sanctions, including visa bans on Pakistanis seeking to come to the UK and withholding foreign aid, if Pakistan continues to refuse to take Ahmed back.
