General Pervez Musharraf, the former leader of Pakistan who overthrew the government in a coup in 1999, passed away at the age of 79.
According to a statement from the nation’s army, the former leader, who served as president from 2001 and 2008, passed away in Dubai following a protracted illness.
He was on the front lines of the conflict between militant Islamists and the West after surviving many murder attempts.
After 9/11, he backed the US “war on terror” despite domestic resistance.
He lost the election in 2008, and six months later he departed the country.
He tried to run for office again in 2013 but was detained and prevented from doing so. He was charged with high treason and given a death sentence in absentia, but less than a month later, the ruling was overturned.
In order to receive medical attention, he traveled from Pakistan to Dubai in 2016 and has since been living in exile there.
On Sunday morning, Musharraf passed away in a hospital. His family requested that his remains be returned to Pakistan via special flight from the United Arab Emirates, according to local TV station Geo News.
The military of Pakistan issued a statement in which it offered its “sincere condolences” and prayed that Allah would “bless the soul of the deceased and give courage to the bereaved family.”
Arif Alvi, the president of Pakistan, prayed “for the departed soul’s ultimate rest and courage to the bereaved family to endure this loss.”
Shehbaz Sharif, the prime minister of Pakistan, and the military chiefs of the nation also sent their condolences.
controversy marring a career
Extremes characterized Musharraf’s rule. Some people gave him credit for reversing the nation’s economic fortunes while he was in power.
After losing power, he became involved in a variety of legal disputes, including charges that he did not give former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto with enough security after her killing by the Taliban in 2007 horrified Pakistan and the entire world.
And when he was ultimately found guilty of treason in 2019 and given a death sentence in absentia, his career came to an end in shame and arrest. Despite the fact that sentence was eventually overturned, he never went back to Pakistan.
Despite these incidents, Musharraf’s former aide and current top leader in the party of the late Prime Minister Imran Khan, Fawad Chaudhury, praised Musharraf and the impact he made on Pakistan.
“He is referred to as a military dictator, but under him there has never been a more robust democratic system… According to Mr. Chaudhury, who was quoted by Reuters, “Pervez Musharraf ruled Pakistan through a very trying time, and Pakistanis think that time was one of the best in Pakistan’s history.
Mosharraf Zaidi, the CEO of the research tank Tabadlab in Islamabad, asserted that Musharraf was accountable for the “destruction of Pakistan” during his administration.
In India, opinions were divided during his term in office.
Many Indians viewed Musharraf as an enemy because of his participation in the Kargil battle in May 1999 while serving as the army chief of his nation, when Pakistani generals secretly ordered an operation to capture heights in Kargil on the Indian side.
However, in the opinion of one MP from India, Musharraf turned things around while in office. Former UN ambassador Shashi Tharoor observed, “Once an implacable enemy of India, he became a tremendous champion for peace 2002-2007.”
In those years, Mr. Tharoor claimed to have seen Musharraf every year at the UN, praising him for being “clever, engaging, and clear in his strategic thinking.”
