 Pervez Musharraf, a former military leader who has been residing in Dubai since 2016, dies on Sunday){kind=link}
General (retd) Pervez Musharraf, a former military leader who has been residing in Dubai since 2016, dies on Sunday.
According to his family, the 79-year-old former president and chief of the army staff had amyloidosis, a rare disease brought on by the accumulation of an abnormal protein called amyloid in organs and tissues all across the body. The organs and tissues may find it challenging to function effectively as a result of the accumulation of amyloid proteins (deposits).
The All Pakistan Muslim League (APML), Musharraf’s party, revealed that he had the rare ailment in 2018, bringing attention to the former leader’s condition.
Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee of Pakistan (CJCSC) and Services Chiefs expressed their deep grief over the news and their their condolences.
The media branch of the military, the ISPR, released a statement that began, “May Allah bless the departed soul and provide strength to the bereaved family.”
In 1947, his family relocated to Karachi from New Delhi. He graduated from the Army Staff and Command College in Quetta before enlisting in the Pakistani Army in 1964.
Musharraf took control of the country in a bloodless coup and placed the country under martial rule in 1999 after Nawaz Sharif, the then-prime minister, attempted to remove him from his position as army leader. A year earlier, Nawaz had chosen Musharraf above more senior officials.
From 2001 to 2008, the four-star general presided over Pakistan. He took power against the backdrop of the 9/11 attacks on the US and quickly joined Washington’s side when it intervened militarily in neighbouring Afghanistan.
He presided over economic prosperity during his more than seven years in office despite avoiding at least three murder attempts.
“Overview of Pervez Musharraf’s Presidency and Downfall in Pakistan”
Voters elected Musharraf to a five-year term as president in 2002, but he postponed stepping down as army head until 2007.
He lost favour after attempting to remove Iftikhar Chaudhry as chief justice by using his easygoing charm, which was unable to conceal the blurring of the line separating the state and army.
A significant uprising against Musharraf’s administration, known as the “Lawyers Movement,” began when the top judge questioned the legitimacy of Musharraf’s dual office as president and Army Chief. Though only a few months after enormous protests forced Chaudhry to retake office on July 20, 2007, Musharraf once again tried to regain power by declaring an emergency and suspending the Pakistani Constitution.
The government instantly sacked and imprisoned about 97 senior judges for their refusal to recognize the emergency rule as the lawyers’ resistance grew stronger.
Opposition leader Benazir Bhutto’s assassination in December 2007 worsened the nation’s attitude, and the humiliating defeats his allies suffered in the 2008 elections made Musharraf an outcast.
The disqualification from competing in an election won by Nawaz, the man Musharraf had overthrown in 1999, put an end to his plans to take back power in 2013.
In 2016, authorities lifted a travel ban, and Musharraf went to Dubai for medical care.
Musharraf was charged in 2014 for putting the Constitution on hold on November 3, 2007. A special court handed down the ex-military strongman’s death sentence in absentia in a high treason case in December 2019.
The decision was later overturned by a court, though.