The funeral prayers of former president retired Gen Pervez Musharraf were offered at Polo Ground in Malir Cantonment, Karachi, on Tuesday.
He was later laid to rest in a military graveyard in the port city where his father was also buried. Strict security measures were taken for the last rites of the former president.
Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee Gen Sahir Shamshad, former army chiefs retired Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa, retired Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kiani, politicians including MQM-P’s Farooq Sattar and Mustafa Kamal were among those who attended the funeral prayers of the former military ruler.
A special plane carrying the body of Musharraf – who breathed his last on Sunday in Dubai – touched down at the Karachi airport on Monday night. Musharraf’s wife Sehba Musharraf, son and daughter accompanied the coffin.
The former general had been admitted to the American Hospital, Dubai as he was suffering from a rare disease amyloidosis. He 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.
On Sunday, Musharraf’s family filed an application in the Pakistani consulate in Dubai to shift the former military leader’s body to Pakistan.
— Condolences pour in —
Politicians and others expressed their profound grief over the demise of Gen Musharraf.
PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry in a tweet uttered positive words about the departed soul, saying Pervez Musharraf himself was a great man but his friends turned to be pygmies.
Reacting to the news, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (CJCSC) Gen 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 Gen 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.
PML-Q leaders Chaudhry Parvez Elahi and Chaudhry 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.
In a series of tweets, Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani expressed deep sorrow over the former president’s death and extended condolences to the family.
“May God grant the deceased a high rank and give patience to the family,” he added.
— Profile —
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 carved out as an independent country. 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 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.
