[4] After playing a crucial role in the support of the decision-making towards the nuclear weapons-testing in response to India's in 1998, Hussain's tenure was abrupted by the staged martial law by Pakistan Army Chief Gen. Pervez Musharraf and was held in prison on treason conspiracy in 1999.

[7][8][9] He is known as a proponent for strengthening the foreign relations with China and Central Asia, having served the Chairman of the China-Pakistan Institute, a lobbying firm based in Islamabad.

[11] During this time, he went to the United States under the Fulbright Program to attend the School of Foreign Service of the Georgetown University in Washington D.C. and graduated with the M.S.

[14] He also served as the visiting professor on the topics of international relations at the Punjab University but was terminated from his employment when he spoke on a rally to oppose the martial law government in October 1979.

: 228 [16] In 1988, he reportedly lost his job as a journalist when he published an interview in The Muslim on the issue of the country's covert atomic bomb program when President Zia-ul-Haq froze the funding of the news correspondent: 227 [16] After covering the nationwide general elections held in 1990, Hussain joined the IDA government led by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and was inducted as an adviser on External Publicity and Foreign Affairs in the first administration, which he served until 1993.

: 43 [17] In 1994, he was appointed as the information secretary of the PML(N) while he continued to write columns and articles on the issue of national conservatism and security in country's major news and political correspondents.

[24] In 1998, he supported the Prime Minister Sharif's relief of commission of Gen. Jehangir Karamat as the Chairman joint chiefs, which he viewed as vital for government's civilian control of the military at that time.

[22] In 1999, his tenure was abrupted when Chairman joint chiefs Gen. Pervez Musharraf staged a martial law against the elected civilian government, and placed him trial that sentenced him on a solitary confinement on a conspiracy of treason; he was declared as the prisoner of conscience.

[26] In 2000–01, he voiced for the civilian control of the military and the called for the support for the democratic movements in an opined article which The Washington Post profiled him as: "Pakistan Keeps Gag on Former Spokesman.

[29][28] His credibility was greatly questioned in an editorial written in Dawn, the political correspondent, where Ziauddin claimed that Hussain filed for "nomination papers for the Senate elections reportedly with a letter of recommendation from Washington, D.C."[30] In 2004, he joined the taskforce as the President Musharraf's special envoy to begin negotiate with the Baloch political leader Akbar Bugti, an ally of Benazir Bhutto, which eventually failed.

[32] Hussain eventually lost the presidential elections with the largest margin, receiving only 44 votes out of 700 from the Electoral College as opposed top Asif Zardari (409/700) and S.Z.