Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf MNA Aamir Liaquat Hussain passed away in Karachi on Thursday.
National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf announced the death of the member of National Assembly during the proceedings and adjourned the session till Friday. The cause of his death is still unknown.
Media reports have said that he was found dead inside his locked room in Karachi. As per details, Dr. Hussain reached his house late Wednesday night. His servants knocked on his door on Thursday afternoon and received no response.
The lawmaker’s driver Javed informed the local emergency services and Liaquat was brought to a local private hospital where doctors declared him dead.
Doctors stated that Amir Liaquat was brought dead to the hospital. The post-mortem of his body will be carried out in a government hospital to determine the cause of his death. However, the post-mortem will be carried out with the consent of the family. The complete report of the post-mortem will be available in two days.
Hussain joined Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in March 2018 and was elected to the National Assembly as a PTI candidate for constituency NA-245 (Karachi East-IV) in the national vote of 2018. However, he left the PTI a few months ago.
In an audio clip posted on twitter, he criticised PTI chairman and former prime minister Imran Khan for “creating division in army and making controversial the chief of army staff”.
Hussain was famous for his pro-establishment and strict anti-India stance. He remained controversial for one reason or another during his career as a TV anchor and politician spanning more than a decade.
A recent video appeared on social media showing him naked in his bedroom with some drugs on his bed, which remained a topic of discussion for weeks. Hussain declared the video as fake and announced to leave Pakistan. He remained away from TV and social media after the video.
Hussain had married thrice. He has two children with his first wife, Syeda Bushra Amir. In June 2018, he confirmed his second marriage to Syeda Tuba Anwar. The marriage lasted for around three years. In February 2022, he tied a knot with 18-year-old Syeda Dania Shah. In May 2022, his third wife filed for divorce after three months of marriage and levelled allegations of drug use and torture against the MNA.
Before joining PTI, Hussain was elected as MNA for the first time in the 2002 national polls on the ticket of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement from NA-249 (Karachi-XI) constituency and was appointed as minister of state for Religious Affairs and Zakat and Ushar Division in September 2004 in the Shaukat Aziz cabinet.
During his ministership, Hussain asked religious scholars to issue a ‘fatwa’ regarding suicide bombings in May 2005. In June 2005, he was attacked by enraged youths during his visit to Jamia Binoria, a known Deoband-Sunni seminary in Karachi. Police however denied that any incident of manhandling of Hussain had taken place and said that the crowd only chanted slogans.
Hussain was the minister of state for Religious Affairs until July 2007, when MQM asked him to resign from his position as minister, and from his seat of MNA. According to an official statement, the party was unhappy with statements made by Hussain against Salman Rushdie. Liaquat resigned from politics and later in 2008, the MQM also expelled him from the party.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has expressed sorrow at the passing away of Amir Liaquat and has prayed for patience for the berieved.
