Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan’s former president, has died at the age of 79 after a protracted illness, BBC is reporting.
In the statement confirming the death, the Pakistani military said it expressed its “heartfelt condolences” and added: “May Allah bless the departed soul and give strength to the bereaved family.”
Mr Musharraf, a military officer, seized power in a coup in 1999 and was later civilian president between 2001 and 2008.
During his time as leader of the South Asian country, Mr Musharraf survived numerous assassination attempts and found himself on the front line of the struggle between militant Islamists and the West.
He was an ally of George Bush‘s administration and supported the US “war on terror” after 9/11 despite domestic opposition.
In 2008, he suffered defeat in the polls and left the country six months later.
In 2013, he returned to contest the election but was arrested and barred from contesting. He was charged with high treason and was sentenced to death in absentia only for the decision to be overturned less than a month later.
He left Pakistan for Dubai in 2016 to seek medical treatment and had been living in exile in the country ever since.
Musharraf had amyloidosis, a rare disease that occurs when an abnormal protein builds up in organs and interferes with normal functions. He was admitted to hospital in the UAE last year. Last year he had expressed a desire to return to Pakistan to spend the “rest of his life” in his home country, but it had been met with fierce resistance by politicians and the public.
Pakistan’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, whose brother the former prime minister Nawaz Sharif was overthrown and imprisoned by Musharraf when he seized power in 1999, tweeted a short message offering his “condolences to the family of Gen (rtd) Pervez Musharraf. May the departed soul rest in peace.”
Musharraf was born in pre-partition Delhi and his family moved to Karachi after 1947. He quickly rose through the ranks of the army and was Pakistan’s top military general when he led a bloodless coup against the Nawaz Sharif government. After seizing power, he suspended the constitution, declared a state of emergency and designated himself the “chief executive”.
Under the new military rule, the former prime minister Nawaz Sharif was put on trial for treason and forced into exile to Saudi Arabia. In 2001, Musharraf formally appointed himself president and oversaw several changes to Pakistan’s constitution. Over the course of the next seven years, civil and democratic institutions in the country were eroded while the military’s control over politics was even more deeply entrenched.
After 9/11 Musharraf became known for allying closely with the US on its “war on terror” and supporting its invasion of neighbouring Afghanistan to topple the Taliban, a now deeply unpopular decision which led to heavy civilian casualties in Pakistan.
As Musharraf began to lose support around 2007, his rule became even more draconian. He suspended the constitution again, imposed martial law, sacked the chief justice of the supreme court and arrested activists and lawyers, prompting mass protests.
After the assassination of the opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, who had returned to Pakistan to fight Musharraf in the election, the national mood soured even more and calls began to grow for him to be impeached. He resigned in 2008 and was forced into exile.
Musharraf had returned to Pakistan in 2013 in a bid to return to power but he was disqualified from running and faced an arrest warrant for his alleged involvement in the assassination of Bhutto. He was put on trial for treason but the country’s powerful military establishment allowed him to leave the country in 2016 on medical grounds. In 2019, he was found guilty in absentia and sentenced to death for treason, but a court later nullified the ruling.
