Feb 6, 2023
By: eetika.kapoor@timesinternet.in
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The former President of Pakistan Pervez Musharraf, who breathed his last in Dubai on Sunday, was an important figure in India and Pakistan’s geopolitics. Here is all you need to know about the man who held ‘the world’s most dangerous job’.
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Musharraf was born on August 11, 1943 to Urdu-speaking parents in Delhi in the British Raj. He lived in ‘Nehar Wali Haveli’ in Delhi, which translates to a House beside a canal.
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Soon his parents moved to Karachi, Pakistan in 1947, post partition. His father joined the Pakistan Civil Services and later worked for the foreign ministry.
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Aged 18, Musharraf joined the Pakistan military academy after completing his education from Forman Christian College in Lahore, majoring in mathematics.
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In his memoir In the Line of Fire: A memoir released in 2006, he admitted to falling for a Bengali girl in Karachi, but the romance was cut short when the girl’s family shifted to East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). Musharraf ended up having an arranged marriage.
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He fought in the Indo-Pakistan wars of 1965 and1971 and led the infiltration that triggered the 1999 Kargil Conflict. India also suspected his involvement in the hijack of an Indian Airlines plane to Afghanistan the same year.
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Musharraf rose to become Pakistan’s army chief in 1998. After the resignation of the then army chief Gen Jehangir Karamat, prime minister Nawaz Sharif appointed Musharraf to the post.
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In October 1999, PM Nawaz Sharif attempted to dismiss Musharraf from his position, but the move was opposed by senior army officers. This episode finally ended with Musharraf seizing power in a bloodless coup.
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He pledged to help American president George Bush in his “war against terror” after the 11 September 2001 attacks by Islamist militants on targets in the US. After Bush told Musharraf, “You are either with us or against us,” Musharraf chose to support the US in its campaign against the Taliban.
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TOI writes India had to deal with two Musharrafs – one responsible for a majority of wars between India and Pakistan, and the other, who, in an effort to ‘turn over a new leaf’, called PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee offering condolences and relief after the Gujarat earthquake of 2002.
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This was followed by a two-day July 2002 summit between Vajpayee and Musharraf in the northern city of Agra that was marked by high drama but was ultimately a failure.
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Musharraf also met Indian PM Manmohan Singh in a summit in 2005 in New York. Many experts considered Musharraf's 2006 four-point plan on Kashmir to break the deadlock with India was pragmatic and possibly the best shot at peace between the two neighbours.
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His fortunes turned and he was charged with the assassination of Pakistan PM Benazir Bhutto, the murder of Bugti tribe chief Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti and for suspending the constitution in 2007 and imposing an emergency.
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He was sentenced to death by a court in Pakistan in 2019 for high treason against the Pakistan government, which was later overturned. He spent the rest of his life in exile in Dubai.
Credit: The Hindu
After four years of self-imposed exile, Musharraf returned to Pakistan in 2013 for contesting polls, where his party and he were disqualified from running. This was due to the charges of high treason against him.
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According to Time Magazine, he held “the world’s most dangerous job” as there were numerous attempts to assassinate him.
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The former president passed away at the age of 79, due to a rare disease called amyloidosis, which is an abnormal buildup of protein in different organs of the body.
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"Musharraf was an implacable enemy & was responsible for Kargil but he did work for peace with India, in his own interest, 2002-7. He was no friend but he saw strategic benefit in peace, as did we," the Congress leader Shashi Tharoor tweeted after Musharraf’s death, drawing criticism from political parties across India.
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