(RockedBuzz via Reuters) – Here are some facts about the life and career of former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, who died on Sunday:
*Born in Delhi, India on August 11, 1943, in his family’s ancestral home, Nehar Wali Haveli. His family emigrated to Pakistan when he seceded from India in 1947 and settled in Karachi.
* Musharraf joined the Pakistan Military Academy in 1961. He was chosen by then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, brother of the current Pakistani Prime Minister, as army chief in 1998. He seized power and overthrew the Sharif’s government a year later, citing deteriorating political and economic conditions in Pakistan
In 2001, he announced Pakistan’s support for the US-led campaign against al Qaeda militants following the 9/11 attacks on US targets. Washington’s so-called “war on terror” triggered the invasion of Afghanistan by international forces, which withdrew from the country in 2021.
In 2002, Musharraf was appointed president, a title he held in addition to army chief, after winning more than 90% of the vote in a controversial national referendum. A year later, he survived a bomb attack by the Jaish-e-Muhammad group, the first of several assassination attempts by Islamist militants angered by his support for the US-led war against al Qaeda.
In 2007, Musharraf stepped down as army chief but said he would remain president for another five years. He imposed a state of emergency to crack down on growing dissent to his rule, which included media censorship and the arrest of opposition politicians.
In February 2008, Musharraf’s ruling party lost the general election. A few months later, facing impeachment by lawmakers and the newly elected government, Musharraf announced he was stepping down as president and fled the country, living in London and Dubai. While in exile, he founded his own political party and returned to Pakistan in 2013 to run in the general election, but was immediately disqualified.
Musharraf has lived in Dubai since 2016. In 2019, a Pakistani court sentenced him to death and found him a “traitor” for subverting the country’s constitution. The ruling was overturned in 2020.
*In 2022, Musharraf’s family said he had been hospitalized due to complications from a rare organ disease called amyloidosis. He died Sunday in Dubai hospital.
(Reporting by Ariba Shahid and Charlotte Greenfield; Editing by Miral Fahmy and Frank Jack Daniel)
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