A Politician in Pakistan Was Arrested in the UK for Child Abuse — Then Flew Home and Got Elected

A former Pakistan state minister arrested at Manchester airport in July 2024 on suspicion of raping and trafficking at least two underage girls from care homes in Rusholme during the 1990s has told a reporter he will fly back to Britain to meet his bail conditions but declined to give a date, according to the Mail on Sunday The Guardian.

Bail means the police release a suspect while they continue their investigation, on the condition that the person returns when asked. Rukhsar Ahmed, 55, was arrested on 18 July 2024 over child sexual abuse allegations linked to the Rusholme area of Manchester, where he had lived for many years. Greater Manchester police wanted to stop him travelling abroad while on bail, but a judge said no. Ahmed was released and flew to Pakistan. Days later, he was elected an MP for Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's centre-right Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party, winning a seat in the Azad Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly The Guardian; Asia News Network.

The police investigation involves allegations from several women who say they were sexually abused as children at care homes in the early 1990s, when Ahmed was in his late 20s. Care homes are residential facilities for children who cannot live with their families. Ahmed served as a minister in various state governments from 2006 until he lost his seat in 2021. He also owned a former restaurant, the Gujjar Palace, near Manchester's curry mile The Guardian.

Reporters found Ahmed in his office in Khari Sharif, a village in Mirpur district, Pakistan. When asked directly whether he had raped two underage girls, Ahmed refused to answer. On Friday, he posted a statement on Facebook denying all allegations and saying he would address them through proper legal channels on legal advice The Guardian.

Ahmed had told police he was too unwell to fly back to the UK and missed an appointment at a police station. He is expected to answer police bail within the next six weeks. If he does not show up, Greater Manchester police could issue a warrant for his arrest or try to extradite him — meaning ask Pakistan to send him back to face the charges The Guardian.

Richard Scorer, head of abuse law at Slater and Gordon, noted that Rusholme has regularly featured in grooming gang investigations over the past 30 years and said he hoped a full investigation was taking place The Guardian. The Times and Sunday Times had earlier reported that Ahmed, described as a Manchester restaurateur, was elected to a ruling assembly in Pakistan while on bail in the UK as part of an investigation into child abuse and trafficking The Times and Sunday Times. The Guardian first reported the case on 5 August 2026, with journalist Rajeev Syal as author The Guardian.

The broader context here is that getting someone back from Pakistan to face charges in the UK is not straightforward. The UK has no formal extradition treaty with Pakistan — an extradition treaty is a direct agreement between two countries setting out the rules for handing over criminal suspects. Instead, the two countries rely on a looser, slower arrangement through the Commonwealth. That process is less predictable, and when the person involved is an elected politician, it gets politically sensitive on both sides. Ahmed's status as a PML-N member of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly complicates things further, because any request to return him would need the Pakistani government's cooperation at a time when the Sharif government faces its own political pressures.

There is also the question of the bail decision itself. The police wanted to restrict Ahmed's travel, but a judge turned that down. Ahmed then flew to Pakistan, got elected to parliament, and has not said when he will come back. This sequence may affect how prosecutors argue similar cases in the future where suspects have strong ties to another country.

For the women coming forward decades after the alleged abuse, the wait has a real cost. Cases involving child sexual abuse from long ago are already hard to prosecute, because memories fade, documents go missing, and other people who may have been involved might not be available. A defendant who is abroad and not returning, regardless of his denials, stretches out an already long road to any possible trial.