KARACHI, Sept 3: Ending his self-exile, a senior leader of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, Saleem Shahzad, arrived here from London after 15 years to attend the funeral of his mother.

Mr Shahzad, who had been elected twice as a member of the National Assembly, left the country after the army launched an operation against the MQM in June 1992. Since then, he had remained in self-exile, first in Dubai and then in London. He had also been booked in a number of criminal cases including the well-known Major Kaleem case.

He was received by MQM leaders and workers at the airport from where he went to his brother’s house in Gulistan-i-Jauhar and attended the funeral of his mother, who passed away on Saturday.

Party sources told Dawn that the decision to send him to Karachi was taken in a meeting of the MQM’s coordination committee in London after which top government functionaries were informed about his brief visit. They said that the MQM leader was expected to leave the country in a day.