Frank wrote on Jul 9
th, 2026 at 6:40pm:
[qhe modern West has become remarkably adept at renaming weakness so that it no longer appears as weakness at all.
This habit of linguistic self‑deception has become one of the defining characteristics of our age. We congratulate ourselves on our tolerance, even as we often display an unwillingness to defend our own values.
The case of Shabir Ahmed – specifically, the UK’s seeming inability to send the ringleader of the Rochdale rape gang back to his home country of Pakistan – is sickening. I do not want this man to ever walk the streets of this country again. It is also infuriating. For it is emblematic not just of political cowardice, but also of our toothless foreign policy and the whole rotten edifice of human rights law that so often seems to protect bad people instead of victims.
The problem is partly legislative – specifically provisions under the Immigration Act 1971, Section 7 of which bars the removal of any Commonwealth citizen who arrived in the UK before 1973, and had been in the country for five years. In the last 24 hours, Alex Norris, the Home Office minister, told the Commons that the government was ‘examining every option’, but that Ahmed – who arrived in the UK in the 1960s – could not be deported unless this law was amended. This may end up being achieved through an amendment to the Immigration and Asylum Bill, which comes before the Commons next week.
But the problem is also Pakistan, and its failure so far to agree to take back its own criminals. Ahmed held dual British and Pakistani citizenship when he was convicted in 2012. His British citizenship was then stripped by the courts upon his conviction, and it was expected he would be deported when he completed his sentence. In an apparent bid to avoid that happening, Ahmed, who was freed last week after serving 14 years behind bars for 30 child rape offences, ripped up his Pakistani passport and renounced his citizenship. Pakistan says he is no longer a Pakistani citizen and has so far refused to take him back.
However, Pakistan does not allow its citizens to make themselves stateless. Under the Pakistan Citizenship Act 1951, a citizen cannot renounce their nationality unless they already hold another nationality or citizenship. So ripping up his Pakistani passport is meaningless. But quibbling about legal technicalities misses the larger point here: why has British diplomacy become so impotent that we cannot force Pakistan to take back this contemptible man?
There are tools at our disposal, if only we had the stomach to use them. We continue to give Pakistan – a nuclear power with its own space programme, it should be pointed out – hundreds of millions of pounds in foreign aid. We could – and should – threaten to scrap every last penny of it until it takes him back. With that threat hanging over Pakistan’s head, the government would surely not hesitate to do so.
Even more pertinently, our government granted over 200,000 visas to Pakistani nationals in the year ending 31 March 2026. Visas could easily be leveraged to exert pressure. Pakistan also earns billions of pounds in remittances from its nationals living here in the UK and sending money home – those remittances could be taxed. What else? Pakistan International Airlines recently regained permission to operate to the UK after restrictions were lifted. That, too, could easily be reversed.
The point is our refusal to play the cards we hold. Yes, as ever, diplomatic negotiation is happening behind the scenes, and in this case, we may yet eventually convince Pakistan to take back Ahmed. But time and again we fail to play hardball and are reluctant – even embarrassed – to use our diplomatic clout to deliver on domestic priorities. This is one of the greatest failings of our foreign policy.
Why have we not already instrumentalised aid, visas and more over the other jailed ringleaders of the Rochdale grooming gangs – Qari Abdul Rauf and Adil Khan – over which Pakistan has likewise been giving us the two fingers? Indeed, why has Pakistan’s ambassador not been summoned over any of these cases and forced to answer for them? What does it say about our national priorities that we have not?
https://www.spiked-online.com/2026/07/09/how-can-we-get-rid-of-shabir-ahmed/This is illustrative of the Western malady of cowardice and weakness.
Napier, Governor of Sindh (now in Pakiland) had this to say about the Indian custom of sati, wife burning:
This burning of widows is your custom; prepare the funeral pile. But my nation has also a custom. When men burn women alive we hang them, and confiscate all their property. My carpenters shall therefore erect gibbets on which to hang all concerned when the widow is consumed. Let us all act according to national customs.
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Put him in steerage on a cargo flight and just drop him at the airport ... no problem.
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