With the departure of the former Pakistani President, Pervez Musharraf, on Sunday, the era of the last military president of his Muslim-majority country ends, after a march that witnessed three assassination attempts and fierce battles with his opponents, before he went into self-imposed exile, and the curtain fell on an important chapter in Pakistan’s history.
And a spokeswoman for the Pakistani embassy in the UAE announced that Musharraf died, Sunday, in a hospital in Dubai, after a long suffering from “amyloidosis”, an incurable condition that leads to the accumulation of proteins in the organs of the body, according to the Associated Press.
Born in Delhi on August 11, 1943, four years before the partition of the Indian subcontinent, Musharraf joined the Pakistani army at the age of 18 and worked in the Special Forces.
From the army to the presidency
He was chief of staff when he overthrew the civilian government of Nawaz Sharif in October 1999 without bloodshed, installed himself as president of Pakistan in June 2001, and changed the constitution to give himself sweeping powers to dismiss the prime minister and parliament.
Musharraf, who emphasized that his ideals in leadership were Napoleon and Richard Nixon, oversaw the rapid economic growth of the country, and Pakistan witnessed during his reign an economic boom, the growth of the middle class, freedom of the media, and the army resorted to appeasement in front of India.
Alliance with the United States
He made his country an important ally of the United States in the context of its war on terrorism after the attacks of September 11, 2001, according to AFP, and a month after those events, he stood beside then-President George W. wherever it is found.”
Pakistan became an important transit point for NATO supplies destined for Afghanistan, and CIA planes flew over Pakistan with Musharraf’s blessing.
Because of his support for the war, he was subjected to three assassination attempts by Al-Qaeda. Musharraf wrote in his memoirs, “I have faced and defied death many times in the past because fate always smiled at me… I only pray that I have more than the proverbial nine lives of a cat,” according to the Associated Press.
Musharraf’s public support has gradually eroded. Despite a booming economy under his rule, his opponents have repeatedly denounced his grip on power, the “illegal” dismissal of Supreme Court justices, the imposition of a state of emergency, and the bloody assault on heavily armed Islamists who have taken refuge in Islamabad’s Red Mosque. In the summer of 2007.
This mosque was a haven for militants opposed to Pakistan’s support for the war in Afghanistan, and the week-long operation killed more than 100 people.
Those events severely damaged Musharraf’s reputation among ordinary citizens, and earned him hatred among the militants, who launched reprisals.
During his reign, another major scandal rocked his rule when it became clear that the famous Pakistani nuclear scientist, Abdul Qadeer Khan, was selling nuclear secrets to countries such as Iran, Libya and North Korea, and reaping a huge fortune because of that.
Musharraf did not face any serious challenges except when he tried to dismiss the chief justice in March 2007, for fear that the judiciary would impede the continuation of his rule, which led to the outbreak of mass demonstrations, which led to months of unrest.
After the assassination of Bhutto in December 2007, the general atmosphere deteriorated, and Musharraf became isolated because of the heavy losses suffered by his allies in the February 2008 elections.
In August 2008, Musharraf stepped down from the presidency and fled to London, after the new ruling coalition began to implement measures to remove him from power, and threatened to sue him for imposing a state of emergency and dismissing judges.
Musharraf said, in a televised speech that lasted for an hour: “I hope that the nation and the people forgive my mistakes.”
Musharraf lived in voluntary exile between Dubai and London, before trying to return to political life from Pakistan, in 2012, and at that time, the authorities arrested him upon his arrival, and placed him under house arrest, and there he faced accusations of treason due to the dismissal of judges, the Red Mosque operation and the assassination of Bhutto.
The Associated Press says that public opinion was shocked to see the image of Musharraf being treated as criminals in a country where military generals have long been considered above the law.
Pakistan allowed him to leave the country on bail for Dubai in 2016, to receive medical treatment, and he remained there.
In December of 2019, a Pakistani court sentenced him to death after being convicted of “high treason”, but the sentence was overturned shortly after. The case centered on Musharraf’s decision to suspend the constitution and impose a state of emergency in 2007.
