The United Kingdom and Pakistan are in talks about sending out a decorated team leader.

Ahmed, who came to England in the late 1960s, held dual British and Pakistani citizenship at the time of his conviction.

His British citizenship was revoked by a court after his arrest, and he is expected to be deported when his sentence is completed.

Earlier this week, the gang’s victims were told of provisions in the Immigration Act 1971 which prevent any Commonwealth citizen who entered the UK before 1973 and stayed in the country for five years from being deported.

The BBC reported that the British government It is understood that the Immigration and Asylum Act, which could be amended to the 1971 Act, is currently going through Parliament.

But if any legislative hurdles are cleared, the UK government will face a diplomatic challenge to get Pakistan to accept Ahmed’s extradition.

That would require the cooperation of the Pakistani authorities, something that has not been seen before in similar cases.

Pakistan had previously refused to take two of Ahmed’s co-captains in Ahmed’s nine-man Rochdale youth squad.

Qari Abdul Rauf and Adil Khan were stripped of their British citizenship in 2018 but could not be deported.

Conservative shadow home secretary Chris Philip Ahmed said the government should consider cutting foreign aid to Pakistan if it refuses to return Ahmed.

He told GB News: “If a British citizen commits a criminal offense elsewhere or is in another country illegally, we will of course take back our own citizens.”

“So we expect other countries like Pakistan to do the same when the boot is on the other foot.”

In 2012, Ahmed was jailed for 22 years as one of nine men convicted of crimes against children at the Rochdale Gurming Gang Trial.

Police said up to 50 girls may have been victims of the gang, and many of them came from a rundown, “council estate”.

Judge Gerald Clifton said the victims were not part of the gang’s community or religion and were treated “as worthless and without any dignity”.

Greater Manchester Police said at the time there was “no racial or cultural element” to the crimes.

A report later confirmed that despite several concerns raised, the police did not act. They said there had been “a number of serious failures” by the police and local authorities.