A MAN from Pakistan will be reunited with his family from Keighley for the first time in five years next week thanks to the help of a Keighley councillor and the town's MP.

Rasab Hussain, 65, was visiting his family in the UK in 2016, when he says he accidentally overstayed his visa by five days because he got "the dates mixed up."

This meant, when he tried to apply for a visitors visa the year after, his request was declined. However, thanks to the "tireless work" of Cllr Mohammed Nazam (Con, Keighley Central), Mr Hussain will be returning next week to spend time with his 14 grandchildren, one of whom is three and he has never met before.

Mr Hussain's nephew, Vaz Shabir, said: "We tried multiple times to get the visa sorted, and then we got Cllr Nazam involved to help us, but it still got rejected, but he got Robbie Moore MP involved who vouched for us and went to the minister and asked to re-assess this, which did work.

"Being Covid, no one's been able to visit him in Pakistan and he's been quite isolated, we've been waiting for him to come for a long time. He's got a grandchild here that he's never met. With the support of the councillor and the MP's office we've been able to get him here, we're really delighted. I just want to share the efforts of the councillor because before that we weren't getting anywhere.

Cllr Nazam has been involved from the start, he's worked tirelessly in making sure all the paperwork was correct, and he knew this was a genuine case because he knows the family."

Rasab Hussain, owns a hotel and rents out shop buildings to businesses in Pakistan, and never intended to over stay his visa, says his nephew, Mr Shabir.

Mr Hussain, has now been granted a six month holiday visa and will be staying with family until next year.

His nephew added: "We were ecstatic when we found out he's getting the visa. The family were just so pleased, he rang me and he was almost in tears, we never thought it was going to happen. It had been three years in a row that's been rejected. He thought he was never going to be able to come back again. It was exhilarating to be honest."

There will be a 'massive' family gathering to celebrate next week, according to Mr Shabir, but they will be making sure "he doesn't get his dates mixed up" again.