Musharraf, architect of Kargil War, no more

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s former military dictator General Pervez Musharraf, the architect of the Kargil War, toppled the democratically-elected government in a bloodless military coup in 1999 and ruled the country for nine years during which he survived numerous assassination bids.

Born in a middle-class family of Urdu-speaking Mohajir parents in Delhi in 1943, Musharraf migrated to Pakistan with his family after the Partition in 1947. Pakistan’s last military dictator died Sunday after spending his final years in self-exile in the UAE to avoid criminal charges in his country.

He died in the Gulf country after a prolonged illness.

During his stint as the head of the Pakistan government, Musharraf allied with America in the war against terror after the 9/11 attacks on the US and cracked down on Islamist groups and banned dozens of radical outfits, a move that angered radicals. He even escaped assassination attempts.

Musharraf, who was appointed the chief of army staff by the then prime minister Nawaz Sharif in 1998, engineered the Kargil War that took place months after Sharif signed a historic peace accord with his Indian counterpart Atal Bihari Vajpayee in Lahore.

After his failed misadventure in Kargil, Musharraf deposed Sharif in a bloodless coup and ruled Pakistan from 1999 to 2008 in various positions – first as the chief executive of Pakistan and later as the President.

Musharraf visited India for the failed Agra summit in 2001 and made two more visits in 2005 as President to watch an India-Pakistan One-day Cricket match and in 2009 to attend a media event.

He fought in the Indo-Pakistan War of 1965 as a young officer, and also participated in the Indo-Pak War of 1971 as a Company Commander in the Commando Battalion.

Tharoor condoles Musharraf’s death; BJP slams Cong

Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Sunday condoled the passing away of Pakistan’s former president General (retd) Pervez Musharraf, saying that “once an implacable foe of India, he became a real force for peace” between 2002 and 2007.

Tharoor’s social media post condoling Musharraf’s demise evoked a sharp response from the BJP which accused the Congress of “Pakistan parasti (worshipping)”.

Musharraf passed away on Sunday in a Dubai hospital, according to media reports. “’Pervez Musharraf, Former Pakistani President, Dies of Rare Disease’: once an implacable foe of India, he became a real force for peace 2002-2007,” Tharoor said in a tweet.

“I met him annually in those days at the United Nations and found him smart, engaging and clear in his strategic thinking. Rest In Peace,” the former minister of state for external affairs said.

In a tweet, the BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla shared an old video of Musharraf talking about his son being invited by Rahul Gandhi and Musharraf’s wife, brother and son being invited for a lunch by former prime minister Manmohan Singh

when they were on a Delhi visit, during his tenure as the Pakistan president. “Parvez Musharraf who had hailed Osama Bin Laden and Taliban had sung praises of Rahul Gandhi too called him a gentleman and pledged his support to him. Perhaps this is the reason why Shashi Tharoor is eulogising the architect of Kargil and a backer of terrorism,” Poonawalla said in his tweet, tagging the video.

Musharraf, 79, was suffering from amyloidosis, a rare disease caused by a build-up of an abnormal protein called amyloid in organs and tissues throughout the body, The Express Tribune reported.

Musharraf was born on August 11, 1943 in Delhi. He assumed the post of Chief Executive after imposing martial law in the country in 1999 and served as the president of Pakistan from 2001 to 2008.

He genuinely tried to address Kashmir issue, says Mehbooba

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti on Sunday said former president Pervez Musharraf was the only Pakistani General who genuinely tried to address the Kashmir issue. Musharraf, 79, passed away on Sunday at a Dubai hospital. “Deepest condolences.

Perhaps the only Pakistani General who genuinely tried to address the Kashmir issue. He wanted a solution according to wishes of people of J-K and acceptable to India and Pak. Though GOI has reversed all CBMs initiated by him and Vajpayee ji, the ceasefire remains,” the former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister wrote on Twitter.

Musharraf seized power in 1999 in a coup and served as Pakistani president from 2001-2008. Former Pakistan foreign minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri had claimed in his book ‘Neither A Hawk Nor A Dove’ that India and Pakistan were close to finding a solution to the vexed Kashmir issue during the 2001 Agra Summit between the then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Musharraf.

Declared fugitive, Musharraf faced charges in Pak

General Pervez Musharraf in full military attire; Musharraf shakes hands with the then Indian Prime Minister Singh in New Delhi

Pakistan’s wily former military ruler General Pervez Musharraf, the architect of the Kargil War in 1999, died on Sunday in Dubai after battling an incurable disease.

Musharraf, 79, who lived in self-imposed exile in the UAE to avoid criminal charges against him in Pakistan, died after a prolonged illness at the American Hospital in Dubai.

He was suffering from amyloidosis, a rare disease caused by a build-up of an abnormal protein called amyloid in organs and tissues throughout the body, according to his family.

In a statement issued immediately after Musharraf’s death, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the media wing of the Pakistan military, said that Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee General Sahir Shamshad and all the services chiefs express their heartfelt condolences.

“May Allah bless the departed soul and give strength to the bereaved family,” it said. Musharraf’s family has filed an application in the Pakistani consulate in Dubai to shift the former military leader’s body to Pakistan.

A special jet will fly to Dubai from Nur Khan airbase in Rawalpindi to bring Musharraf’s mortal remains back to Pakistan. Musharraf will be buried in a Karachi graveyard, confirmed his family sources.

In June last, he was hospitalised in Dubai for three weeks. “Going through a difficult stage where recovery is not possible and organs are malfunctioning. Pray for ease in his daily living,” his family said at the time in a statement after the news of his demise had started circulating on social media.

Musharraf, who announced elections in 2008 under domestic and international pressure, was forced to resign as president following the polls and went into self-imposed exile in Dubai.

In 2010, he formed his own party, the All Pakistan Muslim League and declared himself the party president. He voiced his opinion of actively taking part in Pakistan’s politics sometime in the future.

He returned to Pakistan in March 2013 to contest polls after living in self-exile for about five years but was hauled to court in different cases - including the 2007 assassination of former premier Benazir Bhutto, treason under article 6 of Pakistan Constitution and murder of Bugti tribe chief Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti.

In 2006, on the orders of Gen Musharraf, the Pakistan Army killed the former junior interior minister and Governor of Balochistan Bugti and over two dozen of his tribesmen, leading to widespread unrest in the area and a surge in the Baloch nationalist sentiment in the province.

In 2019, Musharraf was sentenced to death in absentia by a special court which found him guilty of high treason, for imposing a state of emergency on November 3, 2007. The death sentence was later annulled by the Lahore High Court.

Musharraf, who was living in Dubai since March 2016, was also declared a fugitive in the Benazir Bhutto murder case and Red Mosque cleric killing case.

‘Was threatened into cooperating with US after 9/11 attacks’

The US threatened to bomb Pakistan back to the Stone Age after the 9/11 terror attacks if then President General Pervez Musharraf did not cooperate with America’s war on Afghanistan.

In his memoir ‘In the Line of Fire’, Musharraf wrote that the threat was delivered by the tough-talking assistant secretary of state, Richard Armitage, in conversations with Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief who was in Washington on a visit at the time of the 9/11 attack.

“In what has to be most undiplomatic statement ever made, Armitage added to what Colin Powell had said to me and told the (ISI) director general not only that we had to decide whether we were with America or with the terrorists, but that if we chose the terrorists, then we should be prepared to be bombed back to the Stone Age,” Musharraf wrote, explaining the situation he faced after the twin tower attack.

Foes and friends condole Musharraf’s demise

Foes and friends of Pakistan’s former military ruler General Pervez Musharraf on Sunday condoled his demise with PM Shehbaz Sharif saying that he was praying for the forgiveness of the deceased. President Arif Alvi sent condolences to the former president’s family. “President Arif Alvi has expressed his sorrow at the death of former president and army chief General (retired) Pervez Musharraf,” according to the statement.

PMSharif, whose family suffered the most after Musharraf’s coup in 1999, also offered condolences to the former president’s family. “I offer my condolences to the family of General (rtd) Pervez Musharraf. May the departed soul rest in peace!” he tweeted. Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Sunday changed his Twitter profile picture to a photograph of his mother Benazir Bhutto and the late Nawab Akbar Bugti, in whose murder the former military ruler was named.