Overview

• Talks have intensified since the UK lifted its five-year ban on Pakistan International Airlines in July
• Pakistan’s interior ministry clearance is now the sole remaining hurdle to approving Qari Abdul Rauf and Adil Khan for deportation
• Rauf and Khan renounced their Pakistani citizenship days before a Home Office appeal to argue they would be left stateless
• Previous Home Office efforts stalled because Pakistan consistently refused to readmit the convicted offenders
• Survivors of the Rochdale scandal and local MPs have long pressed for their removal as part of wider reforms of child sexual abuse prosecutions