The fourth military ruler of Pakistan, General (retd) Pervez Musharraf, ruled for nine years after a bloodless coup in 1999 toppled an elected administration.
Later, when Musharraf was no longer in office, a court accused him with high treason and in 2019 he was given an absentee death sentence. In 2020, a high court overturned the death penalty.
1943 – On August 11, 1943, Pervez Musharraf was born in Delhi, British India, to parents who spoke Urdu and eventually emigrated to Pakistan.
He enrolled in the Pakistan Military Academy in Kakul in 1961.
1998 – Then-prime minister Nawaz Sharif promoted the soldier to general and named him chief of army staff.
1999 saw Musharraf overthrow Sharif’s administration without using force, declare a state of emergency, and suspend the constitution.
In 2001, Pakistan’s army chief proclaimed himself to be the country’s leader.
Musharraf restored the constitution in 2002, but he also added a clause that allowed him to continue serving as president for an additional five years. Under Musharraf’s military administration, a contentious parliamentary election was held in Pakistan that same year.
General (retired) Musharraf withstood two distinct terrorist murder attempts in 2003.
2007 – He dismissed Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, who was the Supreme Court’s top justice at the time, sparking a national protest movement. Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto, Musharraf’s opponents, came from exile to run in the election that year. Musharraf reinstated the suspension of the constitution and declared a state of emergency.
Musharraf was forced to retire in order to avoid being impeached in 2008 after his parliamentary party lost the national elections. He then fled the nation and went to the UK.
In 2010, he founded the All Pakistan Muslim League, his own political organisation.
The retired general visited Pakistan in 2013 to run in the general election.
He was accused with high treason in 2014.
In 2016, Musharraf was granted permission to fly to Dubai to receive medical care abroad. He never visited Pakistan again.
2019 – Musharraf was executed in absentia after being judged guilty of high treason by a special court.
2020 – The sentence imposed on Musharraf was suspended by a high court.
Reports of his passing circulated in 2022, but his party, the APML, refuted them. His amyloidosis treatment was confirmed by the party.
5 February 2023 At the age of 79, Musharraf passed away in Dubai.
