Pervez Musharraf: A look at the life of Pakistan’s former President

Early years

Musharraf was born in Delhi in August 1943. Following India’s partition at the end of British rule in 1947, his family shifted to Pakistan. He spent seven years in Turkey, during his civil servant father’s posting to the capital city of Ankara. In 1956, the family settled in Karachi, where Musharraf attended Roman Catholic and other Christian schools. He also attended the Royal College of Defence Studies in London.

Musharraf joined the Pakistan Military Academy at the age of 18 and was part of the forces during the 1965 war with India. He was also part of the 1971 war that ended with the creation of Bangladesh, which was then part of Pakistan and called East Pakistan.

Rise to the top of the ‘Kargil architect’

Musharraf served for seven years in Pakistan’s special service commando group. He was promoted to the rank of general and named army chief in October 1998 under then-Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

He was believed to have played a key role in attempting an infiltration of Kashmir in the summer of 1999, now assessed to be a badly-calculated move that led to the Kargil War.

Azad Singh Rathore, a defence and foreign policy analyst and author of ‘Kargil: The Heights of Bravery’, wrote in The Indian Express, “Musharraf presented a plan according to which their Kashmir movement required support from the Army, and there was a need to push more ‘mujahideens’ in Kashmir.” The idea that being armed with nuclear weapons would protect Pakistan forces from Indian retaliation proved wrong. With little gains and significant losses, as well as international pressure, Sharif later ordered the troops to pull back to Pakistani-controlled territory, a move which did not go down well with the military.

Soon, Musharraf seized power from Sharif in 1999 in a bloodless yet dramatic coup, after Sharif attempted to sideline him. On October 12, 1999, while Musharraf was out of the country, Sharif dismissed him and tried to prevent the plane carrying Musharraf home from landing at the Karachi airport even as it ran on low fuel. The armed forces, however, took control of the airport and other government institutions, leading to the removal of Sharif.

Former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif (left), during whose tenure Pervez Musharraf was the Army General. Musharraf later took control from Sharif in a coup. (From the Express Archives)

In June 2001, Musharraf won a controversial referendum extending his rule for five more years, and many say the vote was rigged. Regardless, Musharraf went on to solidify his presence – helped by the international situation at the time.

Image of a moderate face

As Reuters recalled, “His penchant for cigars and imported whisky and his calls for Muslims to adopt a lifestyle of ‘enlightened moderation’ increased his appeal in the West”, particularly in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks in New York.

“America was sure to react violently, like a wounded bear,” he wrote in his autobiography. “If the perpetrator turned out to be al-Qaida, then that wounded bear would come charging straight toward us.” By Sept. 12, then-US Secretary of State Colin Powell told Musharraf that Pakistan would either be “with us or against us.” Musharraf said another American official threatened to bomb Pakistan ”back into the Stone Age” if it chose the latter.

Through laws for protecting the rights of women and allowing private news channels to operate for the first time, he became known as a moderate figure. Foreign investment also grew in Pakistan, during this period.

He also showed interest in normalising ties with India. During the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Summit in 2004 in Islamabad, along with Indian PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the two leaders gave a Joint Statement set the ground for Composite Dialogue Process, under which discussion on eight issues, including Kashmir and terrorism, was agreed upon. The statement was implicit in the admission that terrorism against India emanated from Pakistan. With PM Manmohan Singh, who was born in Pakistan’s Punjab, there was a personal angle to the peace talks, but these derailed later on.

Challenges to his rule and resignation

Some major acts of terror were witnessed during his rule. An army attack on Islamabad’s Red Mosque in July 2007, during which 102 people were killed, saw opposition to him within militant groups heighten further. A spate of suicide bombings followed.

This damaged his reputation. His simultaneous holding of both the top civilian and military posts also saw criticism among the elite quarters. Fearing the judiciary would block his rule, Musharraf fired the chief justice of Pakistan’s Supreme Court in a highly unpopular move.

Also in October 2007, at least 139 people were killed in a suicide bomb attack on Benazir Bhutto’s motorcade in Karachi, as the former PM was driven through Karachi after arriving from eight years of exile. Two months later, Bhutto was killed in a gun and bomb attack in Rawalpindi.

There were other challenges, too – militants tried to assassinate Musharraf twice in 2003 by targeting his convoy, first with a bomb planted on a bridge and then with car bombs. That second attack saw Musharraf’s vehicle lifted into the air by the blast before touching the ground again. “I have confronted death and defied it several times in the past because destiny and fate have always smiled on me,” Musharraf wrote once. “I only pray that I have more than the proverbial nine lives of a cat.”

Finally, in August 2008, President Musharraf resigned after the ruling coalition agrees to launch impeachment proceedings against him. “I hope the nation and the people will forgive my mistakes,” he said in a televised address.

Criminal charges and later life

Mostly living in London and Dubai, Musharraf once attempted a political comeback in 2012 but it ended with his disqualification due to a lack of support. He was arrested and put under house arrest. The attempts to fire Supreme Court judges led to treason charges – the first time military leadership was put under the scanner in the country.

Pakistan allowed him to leave the country on bail to Dubai in 2016 for medical treatment, where he had remained since, even as he appealed against the cases levelled at him. He was convicted in absentia on charges of high treason and sentenced to death but in January 2020, the special court that issued the sentence was ruled unconstitutional, and his conviction was overturned.

In late 2018, it was revealed that his health was rapidly deteriorating due to amyloidosis, a rare disease that occurs when an abnormal protein builds up in organs and interferes with normal functioning.

(With inputs from Reuters and AP)