THEIR lives have been on hold since 2015 but last night a Pakistani family who have made Dumfries their home were celebrating after being granted leave to remain (LTR) in Scotland.

It came two years after The ­National highlighted four years in limbo for the Saleem family – father Muhammad, his wife Razia and their daughters Saira and Fatima – ­after Saira, their eldest daughter, was granted LTR by the Home Office, but refused the others.

She had to take time out of her studies because of the stress of the ­affair, but last night, Saira told The National: “We are just so relieved we’ve managed to get this all sorted out.

“We got a phone call from our ­lawyer with the news and we were very emotional, but now we can put it behind us and get on with our normal lives, we are just so happy.”

Muhammad Saleem came to the UK from Pakistan on a work permit in 2005 and was joined the following year by his family.

After living in Lockerbie, they later settled in Dumfries. In 2015, ­however, the family’s former lawyer was late submitting their ­applications for LTR, which started their ­problems. Subsequent visa applications were ­refused and they had to put their lives on hold.

The stress that brought on left their father unable to work, but support came from across the political divide, the Dumfries and Galloway community and a new lawyer, Glasgow-based Usman Aslam.

At that time, Saira told The National: “They have granted me leave to ­remain but not my family. That is very confusing and distressing as well.”

Amanda Kennedy, a local ­journalist, who had gone to Lockerbie ­Academy with Saira, started an online ­petition over what their then MSP Emma Harper said was another example of the UK Home Office’s ­“inhumane and hostile environment”.

The family’s Tory MP Alister Jack even raised the case with the Home Office. Kennedy’s petition was signed by more than 133,000 people, but still the family remained in limbo. Aslam, from the Glasgow firm Rea Law said the decision to grant LTR to one ­family member and refuse three was unusual, and took the case to appeal.

Last night, he said: “I am pleased that the Home Office have reconsidered matters in light of the judge’s ­previous finding. It is simple in my view. Families belong together. ­Nobody should be separated from their loved ones.

“Here we faced a situation where Saira, who grew up with her sister and parents, then spent around 15 years in Scotland, with her sister and parents, faced being separated from them due to arbitrary rules. Moreover, this is a family who are well integrated in Dumfries and give so much back to the community. It is difficult to comprehend what the Secretary of State was hoping to legitimately achieve by trying to split this family up.”