Ex-military ruler Pervez Musharraf dies in Dubai: Pak media

Pakistan's former military ruler General (retd.) Pervez Musharraf, the architect of the Kargil War in 1999, died on Sunday in Dubai after a prolonged illness, according to media reports. Musharraf, 79, was suffering from amyloidosis, a rare disease caused by a build-up of an abnormal protein called amyloid in organs and tissues throughout the body, according to his family.

General (retd) Musharraf died at a hospital in Dubai, Geo News quoted his family as saying.

He had been undergoing treatment at the American Hospital Dubai, the channel reported. The Express Tribune newspaper also said that Musharraf, who had been living in Dubai since 2016, breathed his last on Sunday,

The general was the main architect of the Kargil War that took place months after then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif signed a historic peace accord with his Indian counterpart Atal Bihari Vajpayee in Lahore.

After his failed misadventure in Kargil, Musharraf deposed the then Prime Minister Sharif in a bloodless coup in 1999 and ruled Pakistan from 1999 to 2008 in various positions – first as the chief executive of Pakistan and later as the President.

In March 2014, Musharraf was indicted for suspending the Constitution on November 3, 2007.

In December 2019, a special court handed Musharraf a death sentence in the high treason case against him.

The former military ruler left the country in March 2016 for Dubai to seek medical treatment.

Musharraf was born on August 11, 1943 in Delhi. His family moved from New Delhi to Karachi in 1947. He joined the Pakistan Army in 1964 and was a graduate of the Army Staff and Command College, Quetta.