Pakistan’s last military dictator is no more: in a self-imposed exile in Dubai, former army chief and former president Pervez Musharraf has died at the age of 79.
Musharraf, born in 1943 in what is now Indian New Delhi, fought as a four-star general in three wars against Pakistan’s arch-rival India. In the latter, in 1991, Musharraf himself played a major role in Pakistan’s attempts to seize the strategically located area of Kargil, in the region of Kashmir that both neighboring countries want to control. As president – Musharraf came to power in a 1999 non-violent coup d’état to oust Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif – Musharraf led peace negotiations on Kashmir, although they did not result in a final solution. This turn of the former general has been cited in both Pakistan and India after his passing.
Ally reluctantly
Internationally, his reign was mainly characterized by the war on terror that the United States conducted in the region after the attacks on the Twin Towers in 2001. Musharraf was warned the day after that terror attack on US soil that he had to decide whether he would be “for or against” the US. If Pakistan, seen as a breeding ground and safe haven for Muslim extremists, did not join the war against the attackers, the country would be bombed “back to the Stone Age,” Musharraf later quoted in his memoirs.
He pledged support to the coalition, and Pakistan became a hub for moving equipment from NATO countries hunting the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. But many extremists from there fled across the border to Pakistan. This left cooperation between Pakistan and the international coalition uneasy – US officials were skeptical that Musharraf had sufficient control over Islamic extremism in his own country, even though Islamabad received financial support.
For Musharraf himself, the alliance was even dangerous. He survived two attacks on his own person by terrorists.
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Public outrage
Ultimately, his collaboration with the US led to his popularity falling dramatically domestically. For example, great public outcry arose when he ordered an attack on a mosque in the Pakistani capital, which is said to be a headquarters for extremists who have fled Afghanistan.
Undemocratic actions also led to a decline in popularity. Musharraf won a second term in 2008, having passed several laws that strengthened his position in previous years. When former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who was working on a comeback, was shot dead at a rally during the election campaign, the public suspected that Musharraf had something to do with the attack. He himself denied that.
To avoid being impeached, Musharraf himself abdicated the presidency and fled abroad. A few months earlier, he had already given up his position as army chief.
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Four years later, Musharraf wanted to return to Pakistani politics and so he went back to Pakistan. Not much later he was charged and prosecuted for high treason and subversion of the constitution. He was sentenced to death in absentia in 2019 – he was in hospital in Dubai at the time. A year later, the death sentence was overturned by another court because the procedure followed would have been invalid. Musharraf was subsequently acquitted.
Trend break
Political analysts saw the departure of the army boss from politics, under pressure from civilian authorities and his subsequent prosecution, as a break in the trend in Pakistan. Although the military has remained an important institution in the country, it now operates more in the background in domestic politics.
The former general remained in exile in Dubai and underwent several medical treatments there in recent years. Musharraf leaves behind a wife, a daughter and a son. The current Prime Minister of Pakistan, Shehbaz Sharif, expressed his condolences to the family in a statement. According to the Pakistani television channel Geo News a special flight to Dubai has been arranged for Monday to collect the remains, and Musharraf will be buried in Pakistan.