136 Facts About Pervez Musharraf

1.

Pervez Musharraf served as the 10th Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee from 1998 to 2001 and the 7th Chief of Army Staff from 1998 to 2007.

2.

Pervez Musharraf studied mathematics at Forman Christian College in Lahore and was educated at the Royal College of Defence Studies in the United Kingdom.

3.

Pervez Musharraf entered the Pakistan Military Academy in 1961 and was commissioned into the artillery regiment of the Pakistan Army in 1964.

4.

Pervez Musharraf saw action during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 as a second lieutenant.

5.

Pervez Musharraf played an active role in the Afghan Civil War, encouraging Pakistani support for the Taliban.

6.

Pervez Musharraf became the head of the armed forces in 1998 when he was promoted to four-star general by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

7.

Pervez Musharraf led the Kargil infiltration that brought India and Pakistan to a war in 1999.

8.

In retaliation, the army staged a coup d'etat in 1999, which allowed Pervez Musharraf to take over Pakistan as president in 2001.

9.

Pervez Musharraf subsequently placed Sharif under strict house arrest before launching official criminal proceedings against him.

10.

Pervez Musharraf initially remained the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and the Chief of Army Staff, relinquishing the former position upon confirmation of his presidency.

11.

Pervez Musharraf reinstated the constitution in 2002, though it was heavily amended within the Legal Framework Order.

12.

Pervez Musharraf appointed Zafarullah Jamali and later Shaukat Aziz as prime minister, and oversaw directed policies against terrorism, becoming a key player in the American-led War on Terror.

13.

Pervez Musharraf pushed for social liberalism under his enlightened moderation program and promoted economic liberalisation, while he banned trade unions.

14.

Pervez Musharraf's government has been accused of human rights abuses, and he survived a number of assassination attempts during his presidency.

15.

Pervez Musharraf resigned in 2008 to avoid impeachment and emigrated to London in a self-imposed exile.

16.

Pervez Musharraf returned to Pakistan in 2013 to participate in that year's general election, but was disqualified from participating after the country's high courts issued arrest warrants for him and Aziz for their alleged involvement in the assassinations of Nawab Akbar Bugti and Benazir Bhutto.

17.

Pervez Musharraf died in Dubai in February 2023 after suffering from a prolonged case of amyloidosis.

18.

Pervez Musharraf's family were Muslims who were Sayyids, claiming descent from the Islamic prophet Muhammad.

19.

Pervez Musharraf came from a long line of government officials as his great-grandfather was a tax collector while his maternal grandfather was a qazi.

20.

Pervez Musharraf's mother Zarin, born in the early 1920s, grew up in Lucknow and received her schooling there, after which she graduated from Indraprastha College at Delhi University, taking a bachelor's degree in English literature.

21.

Pervez Musharraf then married and devoted herself to raising a family.

22.

Pervez Musharraf's father, Syed, was an accountant who worked at the foreign office in the British Indian government and eventually became an accounting director.

23.

Pervez Musharraf's elder brother, Javed Musharraf, based in Rome, is an economist and one of the directors of the International Fund for Agricultural Development.

24.

Pervez Musharraf's younger brother, Naved Musharraf, is an anaesthesiologist based in the state of Illinois, in the United States.

25.

At the time of his birth, Pervez Musharraf's family lived in a large home that belonged to his father's family for many years called Nehar Wali Haveli, which means "House Next to the Canal".

26.

Pervez Musharraf was four years old when India achieved independence and Pakistan was created as the homeland for India's Muslims.

27.

Pervez Musharraf's family left for Pakistan in August 1947, a few days before independence.

28.

Pervez Musharraf's father joined the Pakistan Civil Services and began to work for the Pakistani government; later, his father joined the Foreign Ministry, taking up an assignment in Turkey.

29.

Pervez Musharraf's family moved to Ankara in 1949, when his father became part of a diplomatic deputation from Pakistan to Turkey.

30.

Pervez Musharraf had a dog named Whiskey that gave him a "lifelong love for dogs".

31.

At Forman, Pervez Musharraf chose mathematics as a major in which he excelled academically, but later developed an interest in economics.

32.

In 1961, at the age of 18, Pervez Musharraf entered the Pakistan Military Academy at Kakul.

33.

Finally, in 1964, Pervez Musharraf graduated with a Bachelor's degree in his class of 29th PMA Long Course together with Ali Kuli Khan and his lifelong friend Abdul Aziz Mirza.

34.

Pervez Musharraf was commissioned in the artillery regiment as second lieutenant and posted near the Indo-Pakistan border.

35.

Pervez Musharraf participated in the Lahore and Sialkot war zones during the conflict.

36.

Pervez Musharraf served in the SSG from 1966 to 1972.

37.

Pervez Musharraf was promoted to captain and to major during this period.

38.

Pervez Musharraf was promoted to lieutenant colonel in 1974; and to colonel in 1978.

39.

Pervez Musharraf was personally chosen by then-President and Chief of Army Staff general Zia-ul-Haq for this assignment due to Musharraf's wide experience in mountain and arctic warfare.

40.

In September 1987, Pervez Musharraf commanded an assault at Bilafond La before being pushed back.

41.

Pervez Musharraf submitted his thesis to Commandant General Antony Walker who regarded Musharraf as one of his finest students he had seen in his entire career.

42.

Pervez Musharraf's country is fortunate to have the services of a man of his undeniable quality.

43.

From 1993 to 1995, Pervez Musharraf repeatedly visited the United States as part of the delegation of Benazir Bhutto.

44.

In 1993, Pervez Musharraf personally assisted Benazir Bhutto to have a secret meeting at the Pakistani embassy in Washington, DC, with officials from the Mossad and a special envoy of Israeli premier Yitzhak Rabin.

45.

On policy issues, Pervez Musharraf befriended senior justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan Justice Rafiq Tarar and held common beliefs with the latter.

46.

Between 1995 and 1998, Lieutenant-General Pervez Musharraf was the corps commander of I Strike Corps stationed in Mangla, Mangla Military District.

47.

Pervez Musharraf was in third-in-line and was well regarded by the general public and the armed forces.

48.

Pervez Musharraf had an excellent academic standing from his college and university studies.

49.

Pervez Musharraf was strongly favoured by the Prime Minister's colleagues: a straight officer with democratic views.

50.

Pervez Musharraf had severe confrontation and became involved in serious altercations with his senior officers, chief of naval staff Admiral Fasih Bokhari, chief of air staff, Air Chief Marshal PQ Mehdi and senior lieutenant-general Ali Kuli Khan.

51.

Pervez Musharraf had left for a weekend trip to take part in Sri Lanka's Army's 50th-anniversary celebrations.

52.

When Pervez Musharraf was returning from an official visit to Colombo his flight was denied landing permissions to Karachi International Airport after orders were issued from the Prime Minister's office.

53.

Pervez Musharraf quickly purged the government of political enemies, notably Ziauddin and national airline chief Shahid Khaqan Abbassi.

54.

Ultimately, Pervez Musharraf assumed executive powers but did not obtain the office of the Prime minister.

55.

The senior military appointments in the inter-services were extremely important and crucial for Pervez Musharraf to keep the legitimacy and the support for his coup in the joint inter-services.

56.

Once Air-chief Marshal Pervez Kureshi was retired, the most junior air marshal Muschaf Mir was appointed to four-star rank as well as elevated as Chief of Air Staff.

57.

In late December 1999, Pervez Musharraf dealt with his first international crisis when India accused Pakistan's involvement in the Indian Airlines Flight 814 hijacking.

58.

Pervez Musharraf labelled many of his senior professors at NDU as "pseudo-intellectuals", including the NDU's notable professors, General Aslam Beg and Jehangir Karamat under whom Pervez Musharraf studied and served well.

59.

Pervez Musharraf's trial began in early March 2000 in an anti-terrorism court, which is designed for speedy trials.

60.

Pervez Musharraf testified Musharraf began preparations of a coup after the Kargil conflict.

61.

On 12 May 2000, the Supreme Court asked Pervez Musharraf to hold national elections by 12 October 2002.

62.

Pervez Musharraf called for nationwide political elections in the country after accepting the ruling of the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

63.

Pervez Musharraf was the first military president to accept the rulings of the Supreme Court and holding free and fair elections in 2002, part of his vision to return democratic rule to the country.

64.

In October 2002, Pakistan held general elections, which the pro-Pervez Musharraf PML-Q won wide margins, although it had failed to gain an absolute majority.

65.

Pervez Musharraf succeeded to pass the XVII amendment, which grants powers to dissolve the parliament, with approval required from the Supreme Court.

66.

Pervez Musharraf accepted the resignation of Jamali and asked his close colleague Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain to appoint a new prime minister in place.

67.

Pervez Musharraf regarded Aziz as his right hand and preferable choice for the office of Prime minister.

68.

Aziz swiftly, quietly and quickly undermined the elements seeking to undermine Pervez Musharraf, which became a factor in Pervez Musharraf's trust in him.

69.

Pervez Musharraf suspended the country's democratic process and imposed two states of emergency, leading to his conviction for treason.

70.

The legacy of Pervez Musharraf's era serves as a cautionary tale for future leaders in Pakistan.

71.

The President [Pervez Musharraf] stood clapping his hands right next to us as we sang Azadi and Jazba, and moved to the beat with us.

72.

The presidency of Pervez Musharraf helped bring the liberal forces to the national level and into prominence, for the first time in the history of Pakistan.

73.

Pervez Musharraf granted national amnesty to the political workers of the liberal parties like Muttahida Qaumi Movement and Pakistan Muslim League, and supported MQM in becoming a central player in the government.

74.

Pervez Musharraf disbanded the cultural policies of the previous Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, and quickly adopted Benazir Bhutto's cultural policies after disbanding Indian channels in the country.

75.

In 2001, Pervez Musharraf got on stage with the rock music band, Junoon, and sang the national song with the band.

76.

On political fronts, Pervez Musharraf faced fierce opposition from the ultra-conservative alliance, the MMA, led by clergyman Maulana Noorani.

77.

On 18 September 2005, Pervez Musharraf made a speech before a broad based audience of Jewish leadership, sponsored by the American Jewish Congress's Council for World Jewry, in New York City.

78.

Pervez Musharraf was widely criticised by Middle Eastern leaders, but was met with some praise among Jewish leadership.

79.

Pervez Musharraf was, however criticised by NATO and the Afghan government of not doing enough to prevent pro Taliban or Al-Qaeda militants in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region.

80.

Tensions with Afghanistan increased in 2006, with Hamid Karzai, then president of Afghanistan, accusing Pervez Musharraf of failing to act against Afghan Taliban leaders in Pakistan, claiming that the Taliban leader Mullah Omar was based in Quetta, Pakistan.

81.

In 2004, Pervez Musharraf began a series of talks with India to resolve the Kashmir dispute.

82.

From September 2001 until his resignation in 2007 from the military, Pervez Musharraf's presidency was affected by scandals relating to nuclear weapons, which were detrimental to his authoritative legitimacy in the country and in the international community.

83.

In October 2001, Pervez Musharraf authorised a sting operation led by FIA to arrest two physicists Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmood and Chaudhry Abdul Majeed, because of their supposed connection with the Taliban after they secretly visited Taliban-controlled Afghanistan in 2000.

84.

In December 2001, Pervez Musharraf authorised security hearings and the two scientists were taken into the custody by the JAG Branch ; security hearings continued until early 2002.

85.

On 27 February 2001, Pervez Musharraf spoke highly of Khan at a state dinner in Islamabad, and he personally approved Khan's appointment as Science Advisor to the Government.

86.

In 2004, Pervez Musharraf relieved Abdul Qadeer Khan from his post and initially denied knowledge of the government's involvement in nuclear proliferation, despite Khan's claim that Pervez Musharraf was the "Big Boss" of the proliferation ring.

87.

The credibility of the United States was badly damaged; the US itself refrained from pressuring Pervez Musharraf to take further action against Khan.

88.

Pervez Musharraf quickly pardoned Abdul Qadeer Khan in exchange for cooperation and issued confinement orders against Khan that limited Khan's movement.

89.

When Pervez Musharraf came to power in 1999, he promised that the corruption in the government bureaucracy would be cleaned up.

90.

Pervez Musharraf instituted prohibitions on foreign students' access to studying Islam within Pakistan, an effort that began as an outright ban but was later reduced to restrictions on obtaining visas.

91.

In December 2003, Pervez Musharraf made a deal with MMA, a six-member coalition of hardline Islamist parties, agreeing to leave the army by 31 December 2004.

92.

On 1 January 2004, Pervez Musharraf had won a confidence vote in the Electoral College of Pakistan, consisting of both houses of Parliament and the four provincial assemblies.

93.

Pervez Musharraf's resignation was at least partially due to his public differences with the party chairman, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain.

94.

Pervez Musharraf nominated Shaukat Aziz, the minister for finance and a former employee of Citibank and head of Citibank Private Banking as the new prime minister.

95.

Pervez Musharraf responded by dispatching 4,500 soldiers, supported by tanks and helicopters, to guard the gas field.

96.

President General Pervez Musharraf signed into law the "Women's Protection Bill", on 1 December 2006.

97.

Pervez Musharraf's government increased reserved seats for women in assemblies, to increase women's representation and make their presence more effective.

98.

Pervez Musharraf subsequently denied making these comments, but the Post made available an audio recording of the interview, in which Musharraf could be heard making the quoted remarks.

99.

On 14 December 2003, Pervez Musharraf survived an assassination attempt when a powerful bomb went off minutes after his highly guarded convoy crossed a bridge in Rawalpindi; it was the third such attempt during his four-year rule.

100.

Pervez Musharraf escaped with only a cracked windshield on his car.

101.

On 9 March 2007, Pervez Musharraf suspended Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and pressed corruption charges against him.

102.

Pervez Musharraf replaced him with Acting Chief Justice Javed Iqbal.

103.

Pervez Musharraf clarified Sharif's and Bhutto's right to return to Pakistan.

104.

Pervez Musharraf called for a three-day mourning period after Bhutto's assassination on 27 December 2007.

105.

On 2 October 2007, Pervez Musharraf appointed General Tariq Majid as Chairman Joint Chiefs Committee and approved General Ashfaq Kayani as vice chief of the army starting 8 October.

106.

When Pervez Musharraf resigned from military on 28 November 2007, Kayani became Chief of Army Staff.

107.

On 3 November 2007, Pervez Musharraf declared emergency rule across Pakistan.

108.

Pervez Musharraf suspended the Constitution, imposed a state of emergency, and fired the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court again.

109.

On 23 March 2008, President Pervez Musharraf said an "era of democracy" had begun in Pakistan and that he had put the country "on the track of development and progress".

110.

Pervez Musharraf delayed his departure for the Beijing Olympics, by a day.

111.

Pervez Musharraf then went on a speaking and lectureship tour through the Middle East, Europe, and the United States.

112.

Pervez Musharraf launched his own political party, the All Pakistan Muslim League, in June 2010.

113.

The PML-N tried to get Pervez Musharraf to stand trial under Article 6 of the Constitution for treason in relation to the emergency on 3 November 2007.

114.

Saudi Arabia exerted its influence to attempt to prevent treason charges, under Article 6 of the constitution, from being brought against Pervez Musharraf, citing existing agreements between the states, as well as pressuring Sharif directly.

115.

Abbottabad's district and sessions judge in a missing person's case passed judgment asking the authorities to declare Pervez Musharraf a proclaimed offender.

116.

On 11 February 2011 the Anti Terrorism Court, issued an arrest warrant for Pervez Musharraf and charged him with conspiracy to commit murder of Benazir Bhutto.

117.

On Piers Morgan Tonight, Pervez Musharraf announced his plans to return to Pakistan on 23 March 2012 to seek the Presidency in 2013.

118.

Pervez Musharraf landed at Jinnah International Airport, Karachi, via a chartered Emirates flight with Pakistani journalists and foreign news correspondents.

119.

On 16 April 2013, three weeks after he returned to Pakistan, an electoral tribunal in Chitral declared Pervez Musharraf disqualified from contesting elections, effectively quashing his political ambitions.

120.

Pervez Musharraf had technically been on bail since his return to the country, and the court now declared his bail ended.

121.

Pervez Musharraf escaped from court with the aid of his security personnel, and went to his farm-house mansion.

122.

Pervez Musharraf characterised his arrest as "politically motivated" and his legal team has declared their intention to fight the charges in the Supreme Court.

123.

On 3 April 2014, Pervez Musharraf escaped the fourth assassination attempt, resulting in an injury of a woman, according to Pakistani news.

124.

On 25 June 2013, Pervez Musharraf was named as prime suspect in two separate cases.

125.

Pervez Musharraf was indicted on 20 August 2013 for Bhutto's assassination in 2007.

126.

On 18 March 2016, Pervez Musharraf's name was removed from the Exit Control List and he was allowed to travel abroad, citing medical treatment.

127.

Pervez Musharraf vowed to return to Pakistan, but has not done so.

128.

In 2017, Pervez Musharraf appeared as a political analyst on his weekly television show Sab Se Pehle Pakistan with President Pervez Musharraf, hosted by BOL News.

129.

Pervez Musharraf was the first Pakistani Army General to be sentenced to death.

130.

Pervez Musharraf challenged the verdict, and on 13 January 2020, the Lahore High Court annulled the death sentence against Pervez Musharraf, ruling that the special court that held the trial was unconstitutional.

131.

Pervez Musharraf married Sehba, who is from Karachi, on 28 December 1968.

132.

Pervez Musharraf had close family ties to the prominent Kheshgi family.

133.

On 5 February 2023, Pervez Musharraf died at age 79 due to amyloidosis.

134.

Pervez Musharraf had been hospitalised a year prior due to the disease.

135.

Pervez Musharraf was laid to rest with military honours in an army graveyard.

136.

Pervez Musharraf's book has been translated into Urdu, Hindi, Tamil and Bangali.