(Reuters) – Here are some facts about the life and career of Pakistan’s former President Pervez Musharraf, who died on Sunday:
*Born in Delhi, India, on August 11, 1943, in his family’s ancestral home, Nehar Wali Haveli. His family migrated to Pakistan when it separated from India in 1947 and settled in Karachi.
*Musharraf joined Pakistan’s Military Academy in 1961. He was chosen by then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, the brother of Pakistan’s current prime minister, as the army chief in 1998. He seized power and toppled Sharif’s government a year later, citing the deteriorating political and economic conditions in Pakistan
*In 2001, he announced Pakistan’s support for the U.S.-led campaign on al Qaeda militants following the Sept. 11 attacks on U.S. targets. Washington’s so-called “war on terror” triggered the invasion of Afghanistan by international forces, who withdrew from the country in 2021.
*In 2002, Musharraf was appointed president, a title he held in addition to army chief, after winning more than 90% of the vote in a controversial national referendum. A year later, he survived a bomb attack by the Jaish-e-Muhammad group, the first of several assassination attempts by Islamist militants angered by his support for the U.S.-led war on al Qaeda.
*In 2007, Musharraf stepped down from his post as army chief, but said he would remain president for another five-year term. He imposed a state of emergency to quell growing dissent to his rule, which included media censorship and arrests of oppsition politicians.
*In February 2008, Musharraf’s ruling party lost general elections. A few months later, facing impeachment by lawmakers and the newly elected government, Musharraf announced he would resign as president and fled the country, living in London and Dubai. While in exile, he set up his own political party, and flew back Pakistan in 2013 to contest general elections but was disqualified immediately.
*Musharraf lived in Dubai from 2016. In 2019, a Pakistani court sentenced him to death and deemed him a ‘traitor’ for subverting the country’s constitution. The sentence was overturned in 2020.
*In 2022, Musharraf’s family said he had been hospitalised due to complications from a rare organ disease called amyloidosis. He died on Sunday at the Dubai hospital.
(Reporting by Ariba Shahid and Charlotte Greenfield; Editing by Miral Fahmy and Frank Jack Daniel)
