Pakistan is holding for ransom some 45,000 Afghan exiles to whom the UK and US want to give asylum, charging $830 to allow each of those exiles to leave Pakistan.

That puts Pakistan in the amazing self-contradictory position of demanding they leave and blocking them from leaving.

The only other case of demanding ransoms for people to leave was when the Soviet Union agreed to allow Jews to emigrate, and charged a ransom for each "exit visa".

Do the US and UK give Pakistan any foreign aid? It would be natural to threaten to deduct these exit ransoms from that aid.