The previous military chief, who seized energy in a coup, died on the age of 79 in Dubai after a chronic sickness.
When requested in a 2014 Al Jazeera interview if he had any regrets from his time in management, former Pakistan military chief and President Pervez Musharraf emphatically mentioned “by no means”.
“I did a lot for Pakistan … I did a lot for my nation and my folks,” the four-star normal asserted, a sentiment he would proceed to precise in later years.
However for a lot of Pakistanis, Musharraf, whose loss of life after a chronic sickness was introduced on Sunday, leaves behind a grim legacy – outlined largely by human rights abuses and the US-led so-called “battle on terror”.
Musharraf, who died aged 79, dominated the nation for almost 9 years after seizing energy in a navy coup in 1999.
He died within the United Arab Emirates, the place he had been dwelling since he was charged with treason in Pakistan in 2014.
Rise to energy
Born in Delhi in 1943, Musharraf moved to Karachi, Pakistan in 1947 along with his household after the partition of India and Pakistan.
He joined the military in 1961 as a scholar and steadily rose up the ranks, culminating in his choice as military chief in 1998 by former three-time Prime Minister and head of the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) Nawaz Sharif.
Musharraf deposed and arrested Sharif in a coup on October 12, 1999, and have become chief govt, after Sharif refused to permit a business airplane carrying the four-star normal to land in Karachi.
Tensions between the 2 males had been excessive for months, most significantly over the battle in Kargil in opposition to India.
Below rising international strain, Sharif was exiled by Musharraf to Saudi Arabia, ultimately returning in late 2007.
After changing into president in 2001 following a referendum marred by accusations of widespread rigging, pro-Musharraf events in 2002 secured essentially the most seats within the normal elections.
Talking from Lahore, outstanding columnist and lawyer Asad Rahim mentioned as former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and Sharif have been each in exile, it gave Musharraf an “open subject” to succeed on the 2002 polls.
“It was a hotchpotch coalition of ex-PMLN politicians, a veneer of civilian democracy bereft of actually real political participation,” he added.
‘Battle on terror’
After the 9/11 assaults, Pakistan underneath Musharraf selected to ally with the US and supported the overthrowing of al-Qaeda allies, the Afghan Taliban.
This included opening land routes for NATO forces to enter landlocked Afghanistan, permitting the presence of US air bases, and sending Pakistani troops to tribal areas within the north to struggle al-Qaeda and its associates.
Arif Rafiq, president of political threat advisory firm Vizier Consulting, informed Al Jazeera that 9/11 helped Musharraf “legitimise” his rule internationally.
“When it got here to combatting al-Qaeda, he was a really dependable ally, to the extent that he put his personal nation’s safety in danger, in addition to his personal private safety,” he mentioned from New York.
“His cooperation with the West additionally precipitated what was successfully a civil battle within the nation,” he added, referring to the expansion in violent assaults, and famous that Musharraf was underneath “great strain” from the US to take motion.
The “battle on terror” additionally noticed an increase in enforced disappearances in Pakistan, a longstanding difficulty within the nation, most notably within the western province of Balochistan and the previous tribal areas in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
A whole bunch of political activists, college students and suspected armed fighters have been forcibly disappeared.
In his autobiography, Line of Fireplace, Musharraf admitted arresting suspected al-Qaeda members and handing them over to the US, a few of whom ended up within the US-run jail in Guantanamo, Cuba, whereas incomes “bounty funds totalling thousands and thousands of dollars”.
Rafiq says enforced disappearances stay “an everlasting a part of Musharraf’s legacy”.
“The counterterrorism efforts with the US additionally created perverse incentives for the Pakistani state to successfully detain and kidnap folks it suspected of terrorism,” he mentioned.
Rabia Akhtar, director on the Heart for Safety, Technique and Coverage Analysis on the College of Lahore, informed Al Jazeera that “whereas you will need to perceive that hindsight is 20/20”, the outcomes of Musharraf becoming a member of the battle [on terror] have been ‘devastating’ for Pakistan.
“Pakistan underneath [Musharraf] may have negotiated and drawn pink traces in a fashion that maximised its strategic pursuits,” Akhtar mentioned through e mail.
Downfall
In March 2007, Musharraf fired former Pakistan Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, which led to an enormous public backlash and gave start to the attorneys’ motion, which protested in opposition to Musharraf’s rule after he dismissed a number of high-profile attorneys.
4 months later, the final was embroiled in one other controversy – the week-long siege of Lal Masjid (the Pink Mosque) by spiritual hardliners that ended with Musharraf ordering a navy operation by which some 100 folks have been killed.
The incident was a catalyst for the rise of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, which has claimed dozens, if not tons of, of lethal assaults thus far.
In November 2007, he imposed a state of emergency and suspended the structure, reigniting protests.
He resigned as military chief later that month, however it did little to assist his political fortunes because the assassination of Bhutto in December led to extra widespread protests and violence. He was accused of willfully failing to make sure her safety.
In February 2008, his PML-Q get together carried out poorly within the polls, forcing him to resign from his workplace a number of months later.
Whereas analysts say Musharraf’s legacy has largely been destructive, he has acquired reward for a few of his home insurance policies – together with girls’s rights and native authorities reforms – and in some international affairs.
Akhtar mentioned improved relations with India throughout his time as president was one in all his “greatest” international coverage achievements.
“[He was] capable of make headway on the Kashmir difficulty and that was the final time there was hope on Kashmir entrance with the four-point system that he had proposed, which was no less than severely thought of for what it was value,” she informed Al Jazeera.
The four-point system envisaged by Musharraf included demilitarisation, self-governance and a joint mechanism agreed by India and Pakistan for the supervision of Kashmir.
Musharraf has additionally been credited with opening up Pakistan’s media panorama.
“Earlier than [his rule] there was one state-owned channel [Pakistan Television], [after] there have been dozens of personal information channels that thrived underneath him,” Vizier’s Rafiq added.
Nonetheless, he mentioned the freedoms granted to the media turned a “double-edged sword” and performed a powerful function in Musharraf’s downfall, citing the destructive protection that adopted after his elimination of Chief Justice Chaudhry and “continuous protection of the attorneys’ motion”.
In the course of the imposition of the 42-day emergency rule, many information channels have been compelled off-air.
Lawyer Rahim mentioned that whereas Musharraf handed laws on girls’s rights and was extra tolerant of dissent and criticism within the press than earlier rulers, “in the long run when his authority was basically challenged for the primary time in 2007 … then all the guarantees of liberalism, moderation, media freedoms went out the window”.
Publish-presidency
After stepping down, Musharraf lived between London and Dubai for a number of years, whereas giving lectures and keynote speeches.
In 2010, he introduced the formation of his personal get together, the All Pakistan Muslim League, and returned in 2013 to steer his group within the normal elections that yr.
His get together gained one seat in parliament, whereas his former rival Sharif turned prime minister for the third time.
Months later, Sharif began felony proceedings in opposition to Musharraf, levelling treason prices in opposition to him for imposing emergency rule in 2007.
Musharraf was affected by amyloidosis – a situation that results in an irregular build-up of the amyloid protein in main organs – and the trial, which started in 2014, was unable to proceed amid the previous president’s well being points and different authorized hiccups.
Critics say the navy obstructed the authorized course of because it was unwilling to see its former chief be convicted.
He ultimately moved to Dubai in 2016.
Nonetheless, a particular court docket in 2019 sentenced him to loss of life in absentia, a conviction which was later overturned.
Musharraf is survived by his spouse and two kids.
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