Pakistan to bring back Musharraf’s mortal remains for burial in Karachi
DUBAI
Former army chief and president retired general Pervez Musharraf passed away at a private hospital in Dubai at the age of 79, diplomatic sources Sunday. The former president was under treatment in American Hospital, Dubai. He had been ill for a long time.
He was suffering from amyloidosis, a rare disease caused by a build-up of an abnormal protein called amyloid in organs and tissues throughout the body. Musharraf was admitted to Dubai hospitals more than once in the past. He had been facing prolonged battle with the rare disease amyloidosis.
The former military ruler was hospitalised for three weeks in June last year. “Going through a difficult stage where recovery is not possible and organs are malfunctioning. Pray for ease in his daily living,” his family said at the time in a statement via Musharraf’s official Twitter account.
The family had issued the statement after the news of his demise had started circulating on social media after some Pakistani and Indian publications carried it. On Sunday, Musharraf’s family has filed an application in the Pakistani consulate in Dubai to shift the former military leader’s body to Pakistan.
According to the family sources, the former president and chief of army staff Pervez Musharraf will be buried in Karachi. The plane from Pakistan will reach Dubai tomorrow morning to take the body of Pervez Musharraf back. Sources added the special plane would reach Dubai’s Al Maktoum Airport from Noor Khan Airbase.
Musharraf’s mother is buried in Dubai and his father is buried in Karachi. Pervez Musharraf was born on August 11, 1943 in New Delhi, India. He who took power in a coup in 1999 and also served as president of Pakistan from 2001 to 2008.
Musharraf moved with his family from New Delhi to Karachi in 1947, when Pakistan was separated from India. The son of a career diplomat, he lived in Turkey during 1949–56. He joined the army in 1964, graduated from the Army Command and Staff College in Quetta, and attended the Royal College of Defence Studies in London.
The former army chief held a number of appointments in the artillery, the infantry, and commando units and also taught at the Staff College in Quetta and in the War Wing of the National Defence College.
He fought in Pakistan’s 1965 and 1971 wars with India. The then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif appointed Gen Musharraf head of the armed forces in October 1998.
On October 12, 1999, while Musharraf was out of the country, Sharif dismissed him and tried to prevent the plane carrying Musharraf home from landing at the Karachi airport. The armed forces, however, took control of the airport and other government installations and deposed Sharif, paving the way for Musharraf to become head of a military government.
Although he was generally considered to hold moderate views and promised an eventual return to civilian rule, Musharraf suspended the constitution and dissolved parliament. He formed the National Security Council, made up of civilian and military appointees, to run Pakistan in the interim.
In early 2001 he assumed the presidency and later attempted to negotiate an agreement with India over the Kashmir region. Following the September 11 attacks in 2001 in the United States and the subsequent US invasion of Afghanistan later that year, the US government cultivated close ties with Musharraf in an attempt to root out Islamic extremists in the Afghan-Pakistan border region.
Following a movement led by the political parties, Musharraf resigned as the president on August 18, 2008. On March 30, 2014, Musharraf was indicted for suspending the Constitution on November 3, 2007. On December 17, 2019, a special court handed Musharraf death sentence in the high treason case against him.
The former military ruler left the country in March 2016 for Dubai to seek medical treatment and didn’t return to Pakistan since. Politicians and others have expressed their profound grief over the demise of Gen Musharraf.
Reacting to the news, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said that the Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (CJCSC) General Sahir Shamshad, and tri-services chiefs expressed heartfelt condolences on the former army chief’s demise.
“CJCSC and services chiefs express heartfelt condolences on the sad demise of General Pervez Musharraf, former president, CJCSC and chief of army staff. May Allah bless the departed soul and give strength to the bereaved family,” the military’s media wing said.
President Dr Arif Alvi and Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif on Sunday expressed their condolences over death of former president Gen. (retd) Pervez Musharraf. The president and the prime minister also expressed their sympathies with the bereaved family, President Secretariat Press Wing and PM Office Media Wing, in their separate press releases said.
The president and prime minister also prayed for the high ranks of the departed soul and for the bereaved family to bear the loss with fortitude. Senate Chairman Muhammad Sadiq Sanjrani on Sunday expressed his deepest sorrow and grief over the sad demise of former President Gen (Retd) Pervez Musharraf.
In a condolence message, the Chairman expressed his sympathies to the bereaved family saying, he shares his grief with the family members of Pervez Musharraf also. The Chairman Senate prayed to Allah Almighty to raise his ranks and grant courage to Musharraf’s family to bear this shock with courage and patience.
Senate Deputy Chairman Mirza Muhammad Afridi, Leader of Opposition Senator Dr. Shahzad Wasim have also expressed their heartfelt sympathies to the family of the deceased in their separate condolence messages on the death of former President General (Retd) Pervez Musharraf.
He prayed to Allah Almighty for forgiveness and exaltation of the deceased. PTI leader Ch Fawad Hussian in a tweet uttered positive words about the departed soul, saying Pervez Musharraf himself was a great man, but his friends turned to be cheap.
Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) President and former prime minister Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, Federal Minister Chaudhry Salik Hussain and other PML-Q leaders have expressed deep sorrow over the demise of former president General (r) Pervez Musharraf.
Chaudhry Shujaat telephoned Bilal Musharraf, son of the late president, and said he was saddened by the death of his father and shared the grief of the entire family.
PML-Q leaders Ch Parvez Elahi and Ch Moonis Elahi also expressed their deep sense of shock over the demise, saying the services of Gen Musharraf for the army and Pakistan would always be remembered. — DNA
