Overview

• The UK Air Safety Committee has ended its five-year ban on Pakistan International Airlines direct routes following a sustained, technically driven safety assessment.
• Foreign Secretary David Lammy and FCDO Minister Hamish Falconer have reopened high-level negotiations with Pakistan on the deportation of Qari Abdul Rauf and Adil Khan.
• Rauf and Khan renounced their Pakistani citizenship in 2014 to argue that deportation would leave them stateless, stalling a 2018 court removal order.
• Pakistani government sources have indicated that the resumption of direct flights could enable progress in finalizing an agreement to take back the convicted grooming ring ringleaders.
• Survivors of the 2012 Rochdale scandal and local MPs have long urged the government to secure the men’s removal to deliver justice for the 47 girls they abused.