Former Pakistan’s president and chief of Army staff General Pervez Musharraf died in Dubai after a prolonged illness. He rules the country from 2001 to 2008. All the influential political personalities pay respect to a fallen soldier.
Pakistan’s former President Pervez Musharraf, a key U.S. ally in the campaign against al Qaeda following the militant group’s Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, died in Dubai on Sunday after a prolonged illness. He was 79.
Pervez Musharraf, a former four-star general who seized power after a 1999 military coup, died in a hospital in Dubai, where he was living in self-imposed exile since 2016. His body will be flown to Pakistan for burial on Monday.
He had survived numerous assassination attempts and found himself on the front line of the struggle between militant Islamists and the West. Despite domestic opposition, he supported the US “war on terror” after 9/11. In 2008 he suffered defeat in the polls and left the country six months later.
When he returned in 2013 to try to contest the election, he was arrested and barred from standing. He was charged with high treason and was sentenced to death in absentia only for the decision to be overturned less than a month later.
The former general was suffering from amyloidosis – a rare disease that causes organ damage. He had long been bedridden and wheelchair-bound.
In a brief statement released by the military’s media wing. Senior military personnel expressed their “heartfelt condolences” on the demise of the former military ruler. “May Allah bless the departed soul and give strength to [his] bereaved family.”
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Pakistan’s prime minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed his “condolences and sympathy to the family” of the Pervez Musharraf on his death, in a statement on Sunday.
The chairman of Pakistan’s Senate, Muhammad Sadiq Sanjrani, also expressed his “deep sorrow and grief,”. While the Tehreek-e-Insaf party, led by former prime minister Imran Khan who was ousted in a vote of no confidence last year, said: “Our prayers and condolences go to his family and we share their grief.”