New Delhi: Pakistan’s former President Pervez Musharraf has died at a Dubai hospital, Indian news agencies have reported, citing Pakistan’s Geo News. He was 79.
News of his severe illness had been making the rounds since last year.
A retired General, Musharraf was a veteran of the 1965 and 1971 Indo-Pakistan wars.
He assumed power after engineering a successful military takeover of the Pakistani government in 1999.
In 2002, he won a general election which was widely reported as almost certainly to have been rigged.
When Nawaz Sharif was elected in 2013, he initiated high treason charges against Musharraf who was convicted and sentenced to death in 2019. His death sentence was eventually struck down by the Lahore high court which had declared the Sharif government’s actions unconstitutional.
Notably for India, Musharraf made some strides towards solving the Kashmir question and move towards peace. In 2006, he told NDTV that Pakistan could be willing to give up its claim on Kashmir if India agreed to a self-government plan.