It146;s a dictator146;s life

His demise was as tortured as his arrival was swift.

Musharraf, an urbane special forces veteran, seized power in a 1999 coup from then-prime minister, Nawaz Sharif. Sharif had ordered Musharraf8217;s dismissal as the army chief was flying home from a visit to Sri Lanka and denied his plane landing rights in Pakistan, even as it ran low on fuel. On the ground, the army seized control, and Musharraf took over, promising to install 8220;true8221; democracy.

His popularity plummeted in 2007, when he declared a state of emergency and sacked independent-minded Supreme Court judges who could have barred his re-election.

He was widely credited with seeking peace with rival India. While a lasting solution to the core dispute over Kashmir remains elusive, the dialogue dramatically reduced the chance of a cataclysmic future conflict.

Musharraf, who described his military uniform as his 8220;second skin,8221; led Pakistan8217;s army for nine years and only ceded control in late 2007. He often harked back to his time as a commando and was famously unruffled by two huge al-Qaida bombings against him within 11 days in December 2003 in which he escaped injury.

Born August 11, 1943, in New Delhi, India, the middle son of a diplomat, Musharraf8217;s family joined millions of other Muslims in migrating westward when predominantly Hindu India and Islamic Pakistan split during independence from Britain in 1947.

He spent seven years in the elite Special Services Group and rose through the ranks, but was relatively unknown when Sharif promoted him over two generals to army chief in 1998.

The next year, he masterminded a military operation at Kargil, the first Pakistani push into the Indian-held part of Kashmir since the 1971 war. The offensive nearly brought the nuclear neighbours to a new conflict. Musharraf8217;s relationship with Sharif grew tense after the latter agreed to withdraw the Pakistani troops.

The coup that brought Musharraf to power was bloodless and widely welcomed in Pakistan.

After the Sept 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington, Musharraf faced a bleak choice. Pakistan had been instrumental in the rise of the Taliban in neighbouring Afghanistan in the mid-1990s 8212; the Islamist regime that played host to al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

Despite fears of a backlash in Pakistan, Musharraf threw his lot in with the US, earning more than US10 billion in aid for the near-bankrupt country in the years that followed.

He held flawed elections in late 2002, and only after changing the constitution to give himself sweeping powers to sack the PM and Parliament. He then reneged on a promise to stand down as army chief by the end of 2004.

But Musharraf could not shake off doubts about his legitimacy as president. Fearing the judiciary would block his continued rule, he fired the Supreme Court chief justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry in 2007, triggering a mass movement by lawyers against military rule.

While he struggled to manage domestic political affairs, pro-Taliban and al-Qaeda militants were asserting control over vast tracts of Pakistan8217;s northwestern frontier and launching a series of shocking suicide attacks on key political figures 8212; Benazir Bhutto among them.

Under pressure at home and abroad to restore civilian rule, Musharraf stepped down as army chief, but rejected repeated calls to resign the presidency, saying his rule was crucial to the country8217;s survival during one of the most turbulent eras in its history.

Though he won another five-year term, Musharraf faced a major national crisis following Bhutto8217;s assassination in December, with opposition supporters taking to the streets with chants of 8220;Musharraf, killer.8221;

After his opponents won the February parliamentary elections, Musharraf found himself largely sidelined. The army said it wanted to avoid interfering in the political scene. And as the months have worn on, the US has also toed a tricky line, not disavowing Musharraf while trying to develop relations with the new civilian leaders.