Ex-Pakistan president and US ally Musharraf dies at 79
Pervez Musharraf, the Pakistan leader who provided crucial support to the U.S.-led war on terror following the 9/11 attacks, has died at 79, the Pakistan military said Sunday.
No cause of death was revealed, but Musharraf had been fighting amyloidosis, and was being treated at a hospital in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Pakistani media reported.
The Pakistan military issued a statement expressing “heartfelt condolences on the sad demise of General Pervez Musharraf . ... May Allah bless the departed soul and give strength to bereaved family.”
Musharraf seized power in 1999 from then-prime minister Nawaz Sharif in a bloodless coup after Sharif tried to oust him as leader of the army.
After 9/11, Musharraf condemned extremism and terrorism, banned foreign funding of mosques and Islamic centers and limited the number of foreign students coming to Pakistan for Islamic studies.
Joint U.S.-Pakistani operations led to the arrests of dozens of leading Al Qaeda figures, including ringleader Khalid Sheikh Mohammed
Musharraf forged close ties with US
Musharraf served as president Musharraf provided land routes for NATO forces to enter Afghanistan, allowed U.S. air bases in his country and sent troops to tribal areas to combat al Qaeda and its affiliates. of the Islamic country from 1999-2008 and was a close ally of the U.S. and President George W. Bush after the 9/11 attacks. Bush referred to him as a “best buddy, Musharraf earned the praise, providing land routes for NATO forces to enter landlocked Afghanistan, allowing U.S. air bases in his country and sending troops to tribal areas to combat al Qaeda and its affiliates. But Musharraf’s partnership with Washington during its intervention in Afghanistan drew mixed reviews at home. Musharraf walked a political tightrope between pressure from the U.S. to crack down on extremism and the demands of an anti-American Islamist constituency.
In the later years of his rule, Musharraf denied claims by NATO and the Afghan government that he was allowing free movement of al Qaeda and the Taliban militants into Afghanistan. He was further vilified in 2011 when U.S. forces killed Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan – near a Pakistan military academy where the Al Qaeda leader had been living for years. Musharraf denied he knew bin Laden had been hiding there.
Death sentence handed down, revoked
Musharraf was defeated at the polls in 2008 and left the country. He returned in 2013, but was arrested and barred from running for office. A Pakistani court sentenced Musharraf to death in 2019 after a six-year treason trial.
Musharraf was sentenced in absentia. Shortly after his conviction, another court threw out the death sentence, citing legal issues with the trial.