Pervez Musharraf

August 11, 1943 – February 5, 2023

Pakistani general who took power in a 1999 coup and was President of Pakistan from 2001 to 2008.

Biography

Pervez Musharraf was born in Delhi in 1943 and moved with his family to Pakistan at independence in 1947; he spent part of his childhood in Turkey, where his father was posted as a diplomat. He attended Saint Patrick's School in Karachi and Forman Christian College in Lahore, entered the Pakistan Military Academy in 1961, and was commissioned into the artillery. He fought in the wars with India in 1965 and 1971 and later studied at the Royal College of Defence Studies in Britain.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif made him army chief in 1998 and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee. He was the main planner of the 1999 Kargil War with India. When Sharif tried to dismiss him that October, the army seized power and Musharraf named himself chief executive; in 2001 he also took the presidency.

As president he made Pakistan a key ally of the United States in the war in Afghanistan and promoted what he called "enlightened moderation" and economic liberalisation, while facing rising militant violence. In 2007 he suspended the chief justice and declared a state of emergency, suspending the constitution. Facing impeachment, he resigned in August 2008.

He returned in 2013 to run in elections but was disqualified and faced several prosecutions. He lived in Dubai from 2016, and in 2019 a special court sentenced him to death in absentia for high treason. He died in Dubai in 2023.