Pakistan recently asked the United Kingdom government for the extradition of two political dissidents, and offered to take back the Pakistani grooming gang convicts in exchange. Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi submitted the proposal to British High Commissioner Jane Marriott in a meeting on Thursday (4th December).
As per reports, Pakistan is seeking the extradition of two prominent pro-Imran Khan figures, Shehzad Akbar and YouTuber-commentator Adil Raja, claiming that they are wanted in Pakistan on charges of anti-state propaganda. Shehzad Akbar served as an accountability adviser to incarcerated former Pakistan PM Imran Khan, and Raja is a UK-based blogger and former officer of the Pakistani Army who broadcasts political commentary on Pakistan.
Both individuals have been openly critical of the current Pakistani regime and have been accused of running propaganda campaigns from abroad. However, they have denied the allegations against them and termed the cases against them as politically motivated.
While the closed-door meeting was portrayed to be centred around “security cooperation” and “countering fake news”, the real purpose of the meeting was to work out an arrangement for the deportation of Pakistani ‘grooming gang’ sex offenders. According to Drop Site News, the arrangement involves Islamabad issuing travel documents for the Pakistan-origin sex offenders stripped of British citizenship in return for the UK handing over Shehzad Akbar and Adil Raja to Pakistan. The British government has not issued any public comments about the meeting.
However, an official readout of the meeting mentioned that Naqvi said to Marriott, “Both individuals are required in Pakistan and must be handed over at the earliest”. Naqvi is said to have told Marriott that Pakistan believed that it had submitted adequate evidence to support its extradition demand, urging that “propaganda-spreading Pakistani citizens” should not be given free rein internationally. Clarifying that Pakistan supported freedom of speech, Naqvi said that “fake news is a problem for every country” and that individuals living overseas cannot be allowed to “malign the state and its institutions”.
Notably, the UK government is looking to deport members of the Rochdale grooming gang, who were stripped of their British citizenship after they were convicted of sex trafficking and abuse in 2012. However, Pakistan refused to recognise them as its nationals. Recently, a National Audit on Group-Based Child Sexual Exploitation revealed that 4% Pakistanis were responsible for 64% cases of child sexual abuse in Rotherham, UK.
