Pervez Musharraf (11 August 1943 – 5 February 2023) was a Pakistani army general and politician who ruled Pakistan from 1999 to 2008, first as Chief Executive and then as President. He was born in Delhi, the son of a career diplomat, and rose through the ranks of the Pakistan Army to become Chief of the Army Staff in October 1998, appointed by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
Musharraf took power in the October 1999 coup d'état that followed the Kargil conflict and Sharif's attempt to dismiss him, and led the country until 2009. His government allied Pakistan with the United States after the September 11 attacks, liberalised the media, introduced local-government reforms, and oversaw a period of rapid economic growth. His rule also saw constitutional manipulation, curbs on the judiciary, enforced disappearances, and a growing insurgency in Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province by Jihadist militants. His dismissal of Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry in March 2007 and the state of emergency in November of that year eroded his support and led to his resignation in August 2008 to avoid impeachment.
In exile after 2008, Musharraf founded the All Pakistan Muslim League in 2010, which won no significant seats in later elections. He died in Dubai at age 79 after a prolonged illness. Assessments of his legacy are sharply divided; supporters credit him with economic stabilisation and social liberalisation, while critics highlight the erosion of democratic institutions and the human cost of the War on terror in Pakistan during his rule.
Musharraf was born on 11 August 1943 to a Urdu-speaking family in Delhi, British India, the son of Syed Musharrafuddin and his wife Begum Zarin Musharraf. His family were Sayyids, claiming descent from the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Syed Musharraf graduated from Aligarh Muslim University and entered the Indian civil service. Musharraf's mother, Zarin, 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. His father, Musharrafuddin, was an accountant who worked at the foreign office in the British Indian government and eventually became an accounting director.
Musharraf was the second of three children, all boys. His elder brother, Javed Musharraf, based in Rome, is an economist and one of the directors of the International Fund for Agricultural Development. His younger brother, Naved Musharraf, is an anaesthesiologist based in the state of Illinois, in the United States.
Musharraf was four years old when India achieved independence and Pakistan was created as the homeland for India's Muslims. His family left for Pakistan in August 1947, a few days before independence. His 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.
Musharraf's family moved to Ankara in 1949, when his father became part of a diplomatic deputation from Pakistan to Turkey. He learned to speak Turkish. In 1956, he left Turkey and returned to Pakistan in 1957 where he attended Saint Patrick's School in Karachi and was accepted at the Forman Christian College University in Lahore. At Forman, Musharraf chose mathematics as a major in which he excelled academically, but later developed an interest in economics.
In 1961, at the age of 18, Musharraf entered the Pakistan Military Academy at Kakul. At the Academy, General Musharraf formed a deep friendship with General Srilal Weerasooriya, who went on to become the 15th Commander of the Sri Lankan Army. This enduring camaraderie between the two officers played a pivotal role in cultivating robust diplomatic and military ties between Pakistan and Sri Lanka in the years that followed.
Also during his college years at PMA and initial joint military testings, Musharraf shared a room with PQ Mehdi of the Pakistan Air Force and Abdul Aziz Mirza of the Navy (both reached four-star assignments and served with Musharraf later on) and after giving the exams and entrance interviews, all three cadets went to watch a world-acclaimed Urdu film, Savera (lit. 'Dawn'), with his inter-services and college friends, Musharraf recalls, In the Line of Fire, published in 2006.
With his friends, Musharraf passed the standardised, physical, psychological, and officer-training exams, he also took discussions involving socioeconomics issues; all three were interviewed by joint military officers who were designated as Commandants. The next day, Musharraf along with PQ Mehdi and Mirza, reported to PMA and they were selected for their respective training in their arms of commission.
Finally, in 1964, 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. He was commissioned in the artillery regiment as second lieutenant and posted near the Indo-Pakistan border. During this time in the artillery regiment, Musharraf maintained his close friendship and contact with Mirza through letters and telephones even in difficult times when Mirza, after joining the Navy Special Service Group, was stationed in East-Pakistan.
Indo-Pakistani conflicts (1965–1971)
His first battlefield experience was with an artillery regiment during the intense fighting for the Khemkaran sector in the Second Kashmir War. He also participated in the Lahore and Sialkot war zones during the conflict. During the war, Musharraf developed a reputation for sticking to his post under shellfire. He received the Imtiazi Sanad medal for gallantry.
Shortly after the end of the War of 1965, he joined the elite Special Service Group (SSG). He served in the SSG from 1966 to 1972. He was promoted to captain and to major during this period. During the 1971 war with India, he was a company commander of an SSG commando battalion. During the 1971 war he was scheduled to depart to East Pakistan to join the army-navy joint military operations, but the deployment was cancelled after the Indian Army advanced towards Southern Pakistan.
Staff appointment, student officer, professorship and brigade commander (1972–1990)
Musharraf was promoted to lieutenant colonel in 1974; and to colonel in 1978. As staff officer in the 1980s, he studied political science at the National Defence University (NDU), and then briefly tenured as assistant professor of war studies at the Command and Staff College and then assistant professor of political science also at NDU. One of his professors at NDU was general Jehangir Karamat who served as Musharraf's guidance counsellor and instructor who had significant influence on Musharraf's philosophy and critical thinking. He did not play any significant role in Pakistan's proxy war in the 1979–1989 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. In 1987, he became a brigade commander of a new brigade of the SSG near Siachen Glacier. He 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. In September 1987, Musharraf commanded an assault at Bilafond La before being pushed back.
He studied at the Royal College of Defence Studies (RCDS) in Britain during 1990–91. His course-mates included Major-generals B. S. Malik and Ashok Mehta of the Indian Army, and Ali Kuli Khan of Pakistan Army. In his course studies, Musharraf performed extremely in relation to his classmates, submitted his master's degree thesis, titled "Impact of Arm Race in the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent", and earned good remarks. He submitted his thesis to Commandant General Antony Walker who regarded Musharraf as one of his finest students he had seen in his entire career. At one point, Walker described Musharraf: "A capable, articulate and extremely personable officer, who made a valuable impact at RCDS. His country is fortunate to have the services of a man of his undeniable quality." He graduated with a master's degree from RCDS and returned to Pakistan soon after. Upon returning in the 1980s, Musharraf took an interest in the emerging Pakistani rock music genre, and often listened to rock music after leaving duty. During that decade, regarded as the time when rock music in Pakistan began, Musharraf was reportedly keen on the popular Western fashions of the time, which were then very popular in government and public circles. While in the Army he earned the nickname "Cowboy" for his westernised ways and his fashion interest in Western clothing.