Former president general (retd) Pervez Musharraf’s funeral prayers offered; laid to rest in Karachi
KARACHI, Feb 07 (SABAH): The funeral prayers of former president, former Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (CJCSC) and former Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General (retd) Pervez Musharraf were held Tuesday in Malir Cantonment’s Polo Ground in Karachi on Tuesday. He was buried in an army graveyard.
The mortal remains of the former army chief were brought to Karachi on Monday night in a special plane from the UAE — after several delays in the flight.
Former army chiefs Qamar Javed Bajwa, Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and Mirza Aslam Beg attended the funeral. Politicians including MQM-Pakistan leaders Dr. Khalid Maqbool Siddiqi, Dr. Farooq Sattar, PSP’s Syed Mustafa Kamal, Advisor to PM and PML-N Khyber Pakhtunkhwa President Engineer Amir Muqam, PTI leader and former Sindh governor Imran Ismail, former federal information minister Javed Jabbar, former FBR chairman Syed Muhammad Shabbir Zaidi and Musharraf’s son Bilal Musharraf were also in attendance, the All Pakistan Muslim League (APML) Spokesperson Tahir Hussain told a private TV channel.
Earlier in the day, the body was given Ghusl (ritual washing and shrouding of the deceased ahead of burial) in Sonapur, Dubai, where he breathed his last at the age of 79.
Along with the body of the deceased, the widow of the ex-army chief and their children were also flown in from the Gulf state.
Upon arrival, the plane was parked near the old terminal at the airport. The body and the aggrieved family were then taken to their destination from the old terminal under tight security.
The bereaved family formally approached Pakistan’s consulate in Dubai on Sunday, seeking permission to shift the body.
Earlier, the consulate general of Pakistan in Dubai issued an NOC for the repatriation of the body of former military ruler.
Pervez Musharraf, who usurped power after a coup in October 1999 and ruled Pakistan till 2008, breathed his last at age of 79 in Dubai, after a protracted battle with the rare disease amyloidosis.
It is worth mentioning here that 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 Mian Muhammad 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.
The former military ruler was sentenced to death by a special court on December 17, 2019, under Article 6 of the Constitution. A case of high treason was filed against him during Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) tenure.
Musharraf was present in the court on March 31, 2016, when he was indicted on the charges.
Later, he flew out of the country due to his illness. He did not return to Pakistan after leaving the country.