LAHORE, Aug 4: Hundreds of PML-N workers welcomed their acting-president Makhdoom Javed Hashmi when he was released from Kot Lakhpat Jail here on Saturday evening.

The Supreme Court, taking up a request to review the Oct 9, 2006, rejection of Mr Hashmi’s appeal against the sentence, on Friday ordered his immediate release.

The party activists had started gathering outside the prison since the morning. PML-N leaders, including former president Rafiq Tarar, secretary-general Iqbal Zafar Jhagra, provincial chief Zulfikar Khosa and Ahsan Iqbal, reached there by 4pm.

As Mr Hashmi came out of the prison at 4.40pm, the PML-N activists released dozens of pigeons and chanted slogans “Go Musharraf go” and “Ik bahadur aadmi, Hashmi Hashmi”. Carrying party flags, banners and placards, they showered petals on Mr Hashmi.

In a brief chat with the media, the PML-N acting-president said he would feel himself really free when parliament and other state institutions would gain independence. He said the political culture and judiciary seemed to have changed during his sentence.

He said that there should be a change in internal culture of political parties as the era of personality cult was over.

Later, Mr Hashmi went to Data Darbar in a procession. Reception camps were set up on the procession’s route at different points.

Mr Hashmi was arrested on October 29, 2003, on treason charges after he had addressed a press conference against the army in the parliament cafeteria. He had distributed at the press conference an allegedly forged and fictitious letter with the GHQ monogram.Opposition parties had on Aug 26, 2004, fielded Mr Hashmi as their joint candidate for the premiership against ruling PML alliance’s Shaukat Aziz. The opposition, however, had boycotted the polls after the authorities refused to issue orders for his production in the house.

Mr Hashmi was shifted from Adiala Jail to Kot Lakhpat, Lahore, in April 2005 where he was to face an accountability court for allegedly massing wealth through illegal means.

He was released twice on parole during this around four years’ imprisonment -– first to attend the last rites of his niece and her husband and second to participate in the wedding of his daughter.