Sex offenders for dissidents? Shehbaz Sharif's deportation deal sparks outrage, What was Pakistan sex grooming gang in UK?

In a big embarrassment for Islamabad, the Shehbaz Sharif-led government has agreed to take back convicted sex offenders of Pakistani origin from the UK. It has been said that it would accept the return of convicted members of the Pakistani grooming gang, like Qari Abdul Rauf and Adil Khan, with certain conditions. A grooming gang of people of Pakistani origin was unearthed, and its ringleader, who raped two schoolgirls in Rochdale, was jailed for 35 years in October. 

Pakistani sex offenders UK

Mohammed Zahid, known as Boss Man, gave the girls free underwear from his market stall and demanded regular sex for him and his friends in return. He intimidated, tortured, and blackmailed them. Manchester's Minshull Street Crown Court also gave lengthy prison sentences to Mushtaq Ahmed, Kasir Bashir, Mohammed Shahzad, Naheem Akram, Nisar Hussain, and Roheez Khan. 

It was reported that a group-based child sexual exploitation ring forced an estimated 1,400 girls to have sex with unknown persons, mostly of Pakistani origin, against their wishes. The girls were commonly from care home backgrounds in the town of Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England. They were abused by grooming gangs of predominantly Pakistani men between 1997 and 2013. 

UK sex grooming gang 

The sex racket was first unearthed in the early 1990s, when care home managers investigated reports that children in their care were being picked up by taxi drivers. The first group conviction occurred in 2010 as five British-Pakistani men were convicted of sexual offences against girls aged 12–16. The lower house of the British Parliament, the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee, conducted hearings after the 2012 trial of the Rochdale child sex abuse ring. An independent probe committee said in its report that girls were regularly picked up in taxis to be abused. They were gang raped, forced to watch rape, threatened, and trafficked to other towns. They faced further trauma due to pregnancies, miscarriages, and terminations. 

Shehbaz Sharif government UK deal

In the latest development, Pakistan's Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi met UK High Commissioner Jane Marriott and handed over a formal request concerning the return of Pakistanis "illegally residing in the UK". According to Drop Site News, Naqvi agreed to take back Qari Abdul Rauf and Adil Khan in exchange for Britain extraditing two high-profile political dissidents. The two dissidents, Shahzad Akbar, the special assistant to former PM Imran Khan, and Adil Raja, a Pakistani army officer-turned-whistleblower, opposed the Pakistan Army chief, Asim Munir. 

Earlier, British PM Keir Starmer's government pushed for the deportation of Rochdale grooming gang members like Qari Abdul Rauf and Adil Khan to Pakistan. However, it has come under a cloud due to the condition imposed by Pakistan.