File photo
A message from the family of former President of Pakistan, General (retd.) Pervez Musharraf, currently under medical treatment in the U.A.E., says his organs are malfunctioning and “recovery is not possible.” He is not on a ventilator but has been hospitalized for several weeks due to complications arising from his amyloidosis diagnosis. The message was issued after news of the ex-Army chief passing away circulated in some quarters, with even some Pakistani newspapers reporting this on their social media accounts. (These have since been deleted.)
The story of Gen. Musharraf has come close to being typical of Army men who take over the government in Pakistan and then come to grief. He ruled Pakistan from 1999 to 2008. Years later, after his downfall, a special court in 2019 convicted him of high treason under Article 6 of the Constitution and sentenced him to death. The three-judge court was formed under special orders of the Supreme Court to prosecute him for imposing emergency and subverting the judiciary in November 2007. It was a summary process after Musharraf had “failed to appear on summons six times” while “recovering” from ill-health in his luxury apartment in Dubai.
The Pakistan Army saw the irony of the situation where a ruler who had the right to punish was being punished. It declared: “An ex-Army Chief, Chairman of Joint Chief of Staff Committee and President of Pakistan, who has served the country for over 40 years, fought wars for the defense of the country, can surely never be a traitor.” The case was brought before the Supreme Court in 2007 by the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who the general had overthrown through a coup in 1999. The former president dodged courts repeatedly, helped by his namesake-successor Army chief Gen. (retd.) Ashfaq Parvez Kayani till 2014 when he denied the charge. After two years, he was helped by the next Army chief, General (retd.) Raheel Sharif, “through pressure” to leave the country.
The case against Musharraf was filed in 2007, an ill-fated year that also saw the assassination of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader Benazir Bhutto in Rawalpindi, who was targeted by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). Musharraf, who didn’t want her to return to Pakistan, was suspected but never convicted even though in the eyes of the public he was dubbed guilty for failing to provide her routine protection. Sharif, who had chosen him as his Army chief because he looked “liberal” and not “too religious” came to regret the decision within months of the appointment. The breaking-point came with the disastrous Kargil war, which Musharraf erroneously claimed had been okayed by the prime minister. Taking place between May and July 1999, the conflict was a disaster for Pakistan. But rather than face punishment for his failings, planner-executioner Musharraf staged a coup against the democratically elected government in October, grabbing the reins of power for nearly a decade. Today, the general’s life-in-exile and fall from grace is a living lesson that all institutions of the state must take to heart.