KARACHI: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Member of the Parliament (MP) and bespectacled televangelist Dr Aamir Liaquat Hussain passed away in Karachi on Thursday. He was 50.
He was born on July 5, 1972 and is survived by two children.
According to Karachi (East) Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Muquddas Haider, Hussain’s condition deteriorated early in the morning after which he was shifted to the Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH) where he was later pronounced dead.
Ramzan Chippa, the head of the Chippa Welfare Trust, also confirmed that Dr Aamir had passed away 15 to 20 minutes before he was brought to the hospital.
Referring to his will, the philanthropist said the deceased televangelist wished to be buried alongside the mausoleum of his parents at the shrine of Abdullah Shah Ghazi. He added that he would be taking care of the final rites of the departed soul.
Dr Aamir’s body has been shifted to Jinnah Hospital for post-mortem. The police have ruled out foul-play, but said that they would be able to give a definitive answer after the autopsy.
A medical board has been constituted for this purpose. Police Surgeon Karachi Dr Samia Syed will head the board, while Dr Sikander Azam and Dr Rajendra Kumar will be the other members. However, the daughter of Dr Amir Liaquat refused to give permission and hence the body was shifted to a morgue. His funeral would be offered upon arrival of his son from London.
The National Assembly was in session when the news of Dr Aamir broke on TV. Speaker Pervaiz Ashraf, while confirming the demise, adjourned the house proceedings till 5pm tomorrow.
According to sources, the anchor had the door of his room locked from inside. The servant knocked on it several times in the morning, but to no avail. He revealed that Dr Aamir had complained of chest pain on Wednesday night.
Heart broken
Dr Aamir was heart-broken after his third wife, Dania Shah, leaked his objectionable videos before filing for divorce – only months after the popular TV host had broken the news of his third marriage with “Syeda Dania Shah, 18, who belongs to an honourable Najeebut Tarfain ‘Sadaat’ family of Lodhran, South Punjab”.
The couple tied the nuptial knot in February, but differences popped up soon after. Dania Shah accused him of alcoholism, substance abuse and violence. She also shared an objectionable video clip of Dr Aamir to substantiate her claim which subsequently went viral on social media.
“Everyone has buried my reputation in the muck over a girl whose interviews should not have taken in the first place. She filed for divorce and I was complying with it,” the TV host said in his last video message.
“All these new YouTubers and so called journalists who have come forward [to give coverage to Dania] have done great injustice to Pakistan. I even cannot face my children. I have no choice but to leave the country,” he said.
The former MNA’s driver told the police that they had heard a “scream from his [Aamir’s] room a day earlier”. Servant Javaid added that Dr Aamir cried the whole night and kept on saying that he was going to die.
“He [Dr Aamir] kept repeating that she has betrayed me,” Javaid said. “I don’t know if she has cast a spell of black magic on me or what. I feel I’m going to die here,” he quoted Dr Aamir as telling him. Asked who he was referring to, Javaid said, “His wife.”
Javaid recalled that Dr Aamir told him in the night that he would be leaving for Islamabad in the morning.
Before joining the PTI, Dr Aamir was affiliated with the Karachi-based MQM-P. He had served as state minister during the government of military dictator Gen Pervez Musharraf. He got elected to the National Assembly twice – first in 2002 and then in 2018.
Dr Aamir was a popular host of Ramazan transmissions – game shows which run pre and post Iftaar during the fasting month. Starting his media career in 2001 after joining a private news channel, he hosted “Aalim Online”, which contributed greatly to his early popularity. He also remained associated with Express Media Group. He continued hosting Ramazan shows throughout his career.
Condolences pour in
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah, former president Asif Ali Zardari, PPP Chairperson and Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, and former Sindh governor Imran Ismail expressed sorrow over the demise of Dr Aamir and prayed for his soul.
President Arif Alvi expressed grief over the passing of the lawmaker and “prayed for his soul”.
Former prime minister Imran Khan also expressed his sorrow over the demise of the PTI MNA.
‘TRULY A LEGEND’
As a televangelist, Hussain, who once described himself as “truly a legend” on his website, was popular with the nation’s increasingly conservative urban housewives and his shows have topped the ratings in terms of advertising revenue.
Hussain had been a key leader of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) until 2016 when he parted ways with the party in August of that year, saying at the time he would quit politics.
He was elected as an MP for the first time in 2002 from MQM’s platform. Two years later, in 2004, he was appointed as the minister of state for religious affairs by the then-prime minister, Shaukat Aziz.
He joined the PTI in March 2018 and was elected as MP from NA-245 (Karachi East-IV) in the general elections held in July of that year. He later fell out with the party in the run-up to the vote of no-confidence in then-prime minister Imran Khan.
