From rising up through the Pakistan Army ranks to seizing power in a coup in 1999, stepping down in 2008 and then going into self-imposed exile, the 78-year-old has seen highs and lows aplenty in his life
File image of Pervez Musharraf. AP
Pakistan’s former military dictator General Pervez Musharraf is critical and on a ventilator support at a hospital in the UAE.
The news was confirmed by his close aide and former information minister Fawad Chaudhry.
From rising up through the Pakistan Army ranks to seizing power in a coup in 1999, stepping down in 2008 and then going into self-imposed exile, the 78-year-old Musharraf, Pakistan’s most recent military dictator, has seen highs and lows aplenty in his life.
Let’s take a look back at his life and political career:
Musharraf was born 11 August 1943 in undivided India. The son of a diplomat, his family moved to Pakistan during Partition.
The career soldier has claimed he was nearly court-martialed for indiscipline but ultimately saved by his bravery during Pakistan’s second war with India.
In 1990, when he was a brigadier in the Pakistan Army, Musharraf in a thesis at the prestigious Royal College of Defence Studies in London listed three reasons for Pakistan’s enduring conflict with India: Hatred, Kashmir and water.
In 1998, Musharraf, then relatively little know. was a surprise pick by then prime minister Nawaz Sharif.
In 1999, the special forces veteran masterminded the Kargil conflict – India and Pakistan’s most serious military engagement since 1971 – which brought the two nuclear nations to the brink of war.
This while reportedly the then prime minister Sharif – and soon to be former prime minister – in the dark.
Their relationship broke down after Sharif agreed to withdraw Pakistan’s troops from Kargil.
Musharraf in 1999 would go on to depose Sharif in dramatic fashion.
Sharif would ultimately agrePoste to go into exile to Saudi Arabia 2000 after being sentenced to life in prison.
Sacked while flying home from Sri Lanka and even denied landing rights in Pakistan as his plane ran low on fuel, Musharraf seized power vowing to install ‘true democracy’.
After the 11 September, 2001 attacks Musharraf, on the receiving end of a threat from the then Bush government that Pakistan would be “bombed back to the stone age” if it refused to cooperate in the war on terror, made the only choice he could – to side with the West.
The decision enraged Islamic hard-liners, and Al-Qaeda called for Pakistanis to “uproot” Musharraf. He escaped at least three reported assassination attempts between 2002 and 2003.
He held flawed elections in late 2002, and only after changing the constitution to give himself sweeping powers to sack the prime minister and Parliament.
He then reneged on a promise to stand down as army chief by the end of 2004.
But Musharraf could not shake off doubts about his legitimacy as president. Fearing the judiciary would block his continued rule, he fired the Supreme Court chief justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry in 2007, triggering a mass movement by lawyers against military rule.
In 2007, Musharraf ordered his forces to raid the Red Mosque in downtown Islamabad where followers of a radical cleric were holed up. The raid left dozens of people dead and hardened militant opposition to Musharraf.
When the chief justice was reinstated by the court and the Opposition grew in strength, Musharraf declared a state of emergency and replaced Chaudhry and other independent-minded justices.
While he struggled to manage domestic political affairs, pro-Taliban and al-Qaida militants were asserting control over vast tracts of Pakistan’s northwestern frontier and launching a series of shocking suicide attacks on key political figures – former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto among them.
Musharraf faced a major national crisis following Bhutto’s 2007 assassination with Opposition supporters demanding he resign for not protecting her and taking to the streets with chants of “Musharraf, killer.” Musharraf’s government blamed Islamic militants.
Under pressure at home and abroad to restore civilian rule, Musharraf stepped down as army chief, but rejected repeated calls to resign the presidency, saying his rule was crucial to the country’s survival during one of the most turbulent eras in its history.
In 2008, facing the threat of impeachment after Bhutto’s party came to power, he finally resigned from the presidency. By that time, Sharif had also returned to the country and vowed to exact revenge.
By 2009, Musharraf left Pakistan saying he is going to lecture abroad. He does not return, essentially going into self-imposed exile.
In 2013, Musharraf returned home saying he wants to contest elections. He is then formally indicted for Bhutto’s murder and Pakistan’s interior minister announces the government will try Musharraf for treason.
In March 2016, Musharraf left the country for medical treatment and did not return. In absentia, he was declared a fugitive in former prime minister Benazir Bhutto murder case and Red Mosque cleric killing case.
In his personal life, Musharraf has a reputation for being something of a bon vivant. He likes good food, traditional Pakistani music, Urdu poetry and fine clothes. He is known to enjoy dancing to Western music at parties. He once faced criticism at home when he was photographed with his two pet dogs animals considered impure in Islam.
With inputs from agencies
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