Expressing its deepest concerns over the “increasingly racist and Islamophobic” rhetoric towards the Pakistani diaspora in the UK, Foreign Office (FO) on Monday categorically condemned the demonisation of the entire community for the actions of a few individuals.
“Pakistan-UK friendship is characterised by warmth, cordiality, robust cooperation and trust. Nurtured over decades this relationship remains an important priority of Pakistan’s foreign policy,” an FO spokesperson said in a statement.
“The deep and multifaceted relations cover important areas including trade and investment, education, security, counter-terrorism, parliamentary cooperation and people-to-people contacts,” said Shafqat Ali Khan, adding: “The presence of 1.7 million strong British-Pakistani diaspora provides the strongest link between the two friendly countries.”
Islamabad’s reaction came after Elon Musk, owner X, falsely accused British-Pakistani men of running grooming gangs in a spate of posts on the microblogging website.
The FO official said that British nationals of Pakistani origin have a rich history of contributing to the UK’s growth, development and, indeed, freedom.
“An exceptionally large number of predominantly Muslim soldiers from what is now Pakistan served in the British Indian army and laid down their lives for the cause of democracy in both world wars,” Khan added.
The official said that British Pakistanis today form the backbone of the UK’s health, retail, and services sectors, adding that many British Pakistanis held high public offices, while thousands served their communities as Members of Parliament, mayors, councillors, and members of local police and municipal services.
“British Pakistanis have excelled in sports and arts. Their cuisine and music enrich British culture,” said Khan, and concluded, “To demonise such a large and diverse community on the basis of the actions of a few individuals needs to be condemned.”
The provocative posts from Musk also prompted a response from the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) earlier this month, stating that the vast majority of sexual grooming gang offences are carried out by white men.
Richard Fewkes, the director of the NPCC’s Hydrant programme targeting child sexual abuse, said: “There is no significant issue with any particular ethnicity or setting.”
Fewkes’s comments come after Musk used his social media platform X to wage an online campaign against the UK government over the issue of grooming gangs, making hideously false allegations against Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who had actually ensured that the grooming gangs are prosecuted and punished for their crimes when he was the head of Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) at the height of this scandal involving Pakistanis, Asians, and White men.
Previously, the billionaire also falsely accused the British prime minister of being “complicit in the rape of Britain” over his record as a former director of public prosecutions, and called safeguarding minister Jess Phillips a “witch” and a “rape genocide apologist”.
