Pakistan claims Shabir Ahmed is no longer one of its citizens and insists he's firmly Britain's problem
Pakistan is refusing to accept Rochdale rape gang ringleader Shabir Ahmed back into the country after he allegedly ripped up his passport.
The vile 73-year-old was released this week after 14 years behind bars for 30 child rape offences.
Ahmed claims he gave up his Pakistani citizenship by destroying his passport - a claim disputed by authorities in Britain.
In Pakistan, ministers and officials maintain he is no longer one of their citizens, blocking his return to his birthplace.
The paedophile left Pakistan in the late 1960s and previously held dual British-Pakistani nationality.
His British passport was revoked in 2016 so he could be deported after his release.
And when he received a 22-year sentence in 2012, his victims were assured he would be removed from Britain.
But he cannot be deported due to a provision in the Immigration Act 1971 which exempts Commonwealth citizens who arrived in the UK before 1973 from removal.
The Government failed to close this gap, which is now being exploited to block his deportation.
However, it sees Pakistan's refusal as a greater barrier to sending him back than amending the Act.
"There is probably a way of solving the problem over the 1971 Immigration Act. That is more solvable than the Pakistan side of the equation," a Government source told The Telegraph.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood is weighing up whether to scrap the section which protects Commonwealth citizens from deportation if they arrived before 1973 and have lived in Britain for over five years.
The Home Office is said to accept that Ahmed genuinely believes he abandoned his Pakistani citizenship.
However, officials maintain he never completed the "full proper process" required.
A Pakistani minister told The Telegraph: "There is discussion in the UK that the law may be changed to deport Shabir Ahmed but to where? He is not our national.
"He is nearly 75 years old. He was born in Pakistan but he has lived all his life in the UK after leaving Pakistan at the age of around 13. He has been in the UK for around 60 years.
"The UK should do whatever it can to him due to his criminality, which is unforgivable - but that's for the UK to do. We have no stake in it."
A Pakistani Government official said the country's records confirm Ahmed renounced his citizenship decades ago.
"As far as Pakistan's database and official records are concerned, Shabir Ahmed is not a Pakistani national," the official said.
Britain has not yet provided evidence that the renunciation process was completed in the wrong way.
Chris Philp, the Shadow Home Secretary, said: "This is a disgrace. Britain must take a zero-tolerance approach to foreign criminals and illegal immigrants.
"Every foreign criminal should be deported, including this sick paedophile who is a danger to children in the UK."
Pakistan has also declined to accept two other prominent members of the Rochdale grooming gang.
Qari Abdul Rauf and Adil Khan sexually assaulted a total of 47 girls over a two-year period.
Both men have had their British citizenship stripped - but like Ahmed, they have also renounced their Pakistani nationality to try and stop being sent back to their country of birth.
