A Bradford couple will be re-united after being forced to live apart for 13 years.

Pakistan policeman Sodagar Hussain will be able to see his baby son for the first time after winning a 13-year legal battle for a visa allowing him to move permanently to Bradford.

The Home Office had refused to let him to join his wife in Great Horton Road and the family were forced to make the expensive journey to Pakistan to see him.

But now Immigration Under Secretary Mike O'Brien says Mr Hussain can be reunited with his wife Sahida Begum in Bradford. He is expected to fly in a few weeks time.

Bradford West MP Marsha Singh who has been pressing for a visa for Mr Hussain said: "The family are overjoyed and I am very pleased that they will be reunited after a very long struggle. It has been heartbreaking for them.

He said Mr O'Brien - who will visit Bradford today - gave him the good news at a private meeting.

Mr Singh said the decision had been made on compassionate grounds.

Mrs Begum said their two children Arslan, 13, and Sproosh, 11, were delighted with the news.

She said her husband had never seen their eight-month-old son Hasaam. She last visited her husband in Pakistan last year.

"It has been heartbreaking. I can't possibly say what this means to me. I can't believe it.

"It has been terribly expensive to go to Pakistan. When my husband has phoned me I have been crying."

The couple have been apart for most of their married life.

The Home Office previously refused a visa because of fears the marriage in 1985 was bogus.

When these fears were dispelled he was then prevented from living in Bradford because of concern he would not have a job and would live on benefits.

Former Bradford West MP Max Madden fought strongly to get the family together and raised it in Parliament.

He said the case was the worst he had come across as an MP.

Mr Madden attended an immigration appeal in Leeds two years ago to try persuade the Immigration Authorities to grant Mr Hussain a visa.

He told the tribunal then that the long-running legal fight had taken its toll and Mrs Begum had been left in despair after the failure of three previous attempts to get a visa for her husband.

He said they had stayed together over a long period of time in the face of extraordinary difficulties.

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