General Pervez Musharraf: Former President of Pakistan Dies After Long Illness | world news

Pakistan’s former president General Pervez Musharraf, who backed the US invasion of neighboring Afghanistan during his tenure, has died aged 79 after a long illness.

The retired politician, who ruled Pakistan for nearly a decade after seizing power in a bloodless coup in 1999, died in a hospital in Dubai after spending years in self-imposed exile, media reported Sunday.

His death in the emirate was confirmed by the Pakistani Embassy in Abu Dhabi.

Born in Delhi in 1943 under the British Raj and raised in Karachi and Istanbul, Mr. Musharraf was commissioned into the Pakistani army in 1964 and served in the 1965 Indo-Pakistani war as a second lieutenant.

He rose to national prominence after being promoted to four-star general by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in 1998, as well as chief of the armed forces.

But after leading the Kargil infiltration that sparked the India-Pakistan war in 1999, he was able to take over Pakistan’s presidency in 2001, following a coup and contentious relations with Mr Sharif.

His presidency oversaw rapid economic growth, and he won worldwide acclaim for his reform efforts, passing legislation to protect women’s rights and allowing private news channels to operate for the first time.

He also pushed for social liberalism throughout his presidency, as well as economic liberalization, and also banned trade unions.

Picture:
Pervez Musharraf pictured following a counter-terrorism court in Islamabad, Pakistan in 2013

Friendly relations with the United States

Most notably, Mr. Musharraf has established friendly relations with the United States and has become one of Washington’s most important allies.

His penchant for cigars and imported whiskey, as well as his encouragement of Muslims to adopt a lifestyle of “enlightened moderation”, increased his appeal in the West in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks in the United States, despite the ousting of an elected leader.

He continued to support the United States, allowing his forces to use armed drones from secret bases on Pakistani soil and ordering national troops into the country’s lawless tribal areas along the Afghan border to the first time in the history of Pakistan.

But it was his brutal use of the military to suppress dissent, as well as his continued support for the United States in its fight against al-Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban, that ultimately led to his downfall, plunging Pakistan into a bloody war against local extremists. militant groups.

He later claimed credit for saving Pakistan from American wrath, writing in a 2006 memoir that the country had been warned it had to be “Stone Age bomb ready” if he was not allied with Washington.

General Pervez Musharraf meets with General John Abizad, commander of US Central Command, in 2004
Picture:
General Pervez Musharraf meets with General John Abizad, commander of US Central Command, in 2004

The last years of his presidency were overshadowed by his increasingly authoritarian rule, including ordering troops to storm a mosque in Islamabad to kill more than 100 students who had called for the imposition of Sharia law.

Mr Musharraf remained army chief until his retirement in 2007 and served as Pakistan’s president until 2008.

After his party lost the country’s first democratic election in 11 years in 2008 and was impeached, he resigned as chairman and fled to London.

Mr Musharraf returned to Pakistan in 2013 to run for a seat in parliament but was immediately disqualified and in 2016 he was allowed to leave for Dubai.

In 2019, he was sentenced to death in absentia for the imposition of the state of emergency in 2007, but the verdict was handed down later.
reversed.

malek

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