About Pervez Musharraf

Pervez Musharraf
( born 11 August 1943), is a retired four-star general who served as the 13th Chief of Army Staff and tenth President of Pakistan as well as tenth Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee. Musharraf headed and led an administrative military government from October 1999 till August 2007. He ruled Pakistan as Chief Executive from 1999–2001 and as President from 2001-08. In the face of impeachment, he resigned on 18 August 2008.
After years of military service, he rose to prominence when Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif appointed him as the Chief of Army Staff in October 1998. Musharraf was the mastermind behind the controversial and internationally condemned Kargil infiltration, which derailed peace negotiations with Pakistan's long standing enemy India. He previously also played a vital role in the Afghanistan civil war (1996-2001) both in peace negotiations and in trying to end the bloodshed. After months of contentious relations with Sharif, Musharraf was brought to power through a bloodless military coup. Subsequently Nawaz Sharif was placed under an house-arrest, later shifting him to Adiala Jail.
As Pakistan's head of state, he was a U.S. ally in the War on Terror. He was credited with the development of Pakistan's economy during the early years of his rule. The last two years of his rule have been marred by controversies the suspension of the Supreme Court Chief Justice and the Lal Masjid siege. He is also credited to be the first president of Pakistan who accepted supreme court rulings and who organized free and fair elections
In February 2011, a Pakistani court issued an arrest warrant for him because of his alleged involvement in the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. As of June 2011, he lives in self-exile in London but has vowed to return for the next election. He has announced that he intends to return to Pakistan on 23 March 2012.




Early life

India
He was born in 11 August 1943 in Delhi, British India. He is the son of Syed and Zarin Musharraf. Syed graduated from Aligarh Muslim University and was a civil servant for the British.Zarin was born in the early 1920s.
His home was called neharwali haveli, literally "mansion by the canal". The home is so large that it housed eight different families in 2001. The home was located in the epicenter of India's ruling Mughal elite. Syed Ahmed Khan's family lived adjacent to the home. The home's title deeds were written entirely in Urdu except for his father's English signature.
Pakistan and Turkey
He and his family left for Pakistan on one of the last safe trains in 1947 a few days before the partition of India. His father worked for Pakistani government and eventually joined the Foreign Ministry. In his autobiography Line of Fire, he elaborates on his first experience with death was after falling off a mango tree.
His family moved to Ankara after his father's diplomatic deputation was sent by Pakistan to Turkey in 1949. He learned to speak Turkish. He had a dog named Whiskey that gave him a "lifelong love for dogs". He often played sports in his youth. He left Turkey in 1956.
He returned to Pakistan in 1957. He attended Saint Patrick's School in Karachi and Forman Christian College in Lahore.

In 1961, he entered the Pakistan Military Academy at Kakul. He joined the Pakistan Army in 1964 and was placed in an artillery regiment.Further information: Indo-Pakistani wars and conflicts
His first battlefield experience was with his artillery regiment in the intense fighting for 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 1966-1972 He was promoted to captain and to major during this period. During the War of 1971, he led an infantry division and a strikes corps. During the war, he also was a company commander of a commando battalion.
Various military posts (1972-1990)
Musharraf was a lieutenant colonel in 1974 and a colonel in 1978. As staff officer in the 1980s, he studied and taught at Command and Staff College and National Defense College. He did not play any significant role in Pakistan's proxy war in the 1979-89 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. In 1987, he became a brigade commander of a new division of the SSG near Siachen Glacier. In September 1987, he launched an assault at Bilafond La before being pushed back. In 1990, he studied at the Royal College of Defense Studies in Britain. While in the Army, he earned the nickname "Cowboy" for his westernized ways.

Director-General (1991-1995)

In 1991, he became major general and worked closely with the Chief of Army Staff as Director-General of Pakistan Army's Directorate General for the Military Operations (DGMO). Musharraf proposed a Kargil infiltration to Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto but she rebuffed the plan. After the collapse of the fractious Afghan government, Musharraf assisted General Babar and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in devising a policy of supporting the newly-formed Taliban in the Afghan civil war against the Northern Alliance government.
His last military field posting was at the Mangla border region in 1995 as a lieutenant-general commander.

Chief of Army Staff

Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff
In October 1998, General was forced to resign as Chief of Army of Staff for advocating the creation of a National Security Council with an active military role. Subsequently, Nawaz Sharif forced General Karamat to resign. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif personally promoted Musharraf as four-star general to replace Karamat. Musharraf superseded Lieutenant General Khalid Nawaz Khan and Lieutenant-General Ali Kuli Khan Khattak who were much senior to him. Later, Sharif promoted General Musharraf to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee.
Kargil Conflict

The Pakistan Army originally conceived the Kargil plan after the Siachen conflict but the plan was rebuffed repeatedly by senior civilian and military officials. Musharraf was a leading strategist behind the Kargil Conflict. From March–May 1999, he ordered the secret infiltration of Kashmiri forces in the Kargil district. After India discovered the infiltration, a fierce Indian offensive nearly lead to a full-scale war. However, Sharif withdrew support of the insurgents in the border conflict in July because of heightened international pressure. Sharif's decision antagonized the Pakistan Army and rumors of a possible coup began emerging soon afterward. Sharif and Musharraf dispute on who was responsible for the Kargil conflict and Pakistan's withdrawal.
Chief Executive

1999 coup

Military officials from Musharraf's Joint Chief of Staff met with regional corps commanders three times in late September in anticipation of a possible coup. To quiet rumors of a fallout between Musharraf and Sharif, Sharif officially certified Musharraf's remaining two years of his term on September 30.
Musharraf had left for a weekend trip to take part in Sri Lanka's Army's 50th-anniversary celebrations. When Pervez Musharraf was returning from an official visit to Colombo his flight was denied landing permissions to Karachi International Airport after orders were issued from the Prime Minister's office. Upon hearing the announce of Nawaz Sharif, replacing Pervez Musharraf by Khwaja Ziauddin, the third replacement of the top military commander of the country in less than two years,  local military commanders begun to mobilize troops towards Islamabad from nearby Rawalpindi. The military placed Sharif under house arrest, but in a last ditch effort Sharif privately ordered Karachi air traffic controllers to redirect Musharraf's flight to India. The plan failed after soldiers in Karachi surrounded the airport control tower. At 2:50 AM on October 13, Musharraf addressed the nation with a recorded message.
Musharraf met with President Rafiq Tarar on October 13 to deliberate on legitimizing the coup. On October 15, Musharraf ended emerging hopes of a quick transition to democracy after he declared state of emergency, suspended the Constitution, and assumed power as Chief Executive. He also quickly purged the government of political enemies, notably Ziauddin and national airline chief Shahid Khaqan Abbassi. On October 17, he gave his second national address and established a seven-member military-civilian council to govern the country. He named three retired military officers and a judge as provincial administrators on October 21.
There were no organized protests within the country to the coup. The coup was widely criticized by the international community. Consequently, Pakistan was suspended from the Commonwealth of Nations. Sharif was put under house arrest and later exiled to Saudi Arabia.

Relations with India

After the 2001 Gujarat earthquake, Musharraf expressed his sympathies to Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and sent a plane load of relief supplies to India.
In the mid-2004, Musharraf began a series of talks with India to resolve the Kashmir dispute

Relations with Saudi Arabia

In 2006, King Abdullah visited Pakistan for the first time as King. Musharraf honored King Abdullah with the Nishan-e-Pakistan. Musharraf received the King Abdul-Aziz Medallion in 2007.

Domestic politics

In December 2003, Musharraf made a deal with Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, a six-member coalition of Islamic parties, agreeing to leave the army by 31 December 2004. With that party's support, pro-Musharraf legislators were able to muster the two-thirds supermajority required to pass the Seventeenth Amendment, which retroactively legalized Musharraf's 1999 coup and many of his decrees. In late 2004, Musharraf went back on his agreement with the MMA and pro-Musharraf legislators in the Parliament passed a bill allowing Musharraf to keep both offices. Constitution Article 63 clause  paragraph (d), read with proviso to Article 41 clause  paragraph (b), allows the President to hold dual office.
On 1 January 2004, Musharraf had won a confidence vote in the Electoral College of Pakistan, consisting of both houses of Parliament and the four provincial assemblies. Musharraf received 658 out of 1170 votes, a 56% majority, but many opposition and Islamic members of parliament walked out to protest the vote. As a result of this vote, his term was extended to 2007.
Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali resigned on 26 June 2004, after losing the support of the PML(Q). His resignation was at least partially due to his public differences with the party chairman, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain. This was rumored to have happened at Musharraf's command. Jamali had been appointed with the support of Musharraf's and the pro-Musharraf PML(Q). Most PML(Q) parliamentarians formerly belonged to the Pakistan Muslim League party led by Sharif, and most ministers of the cabinet were formerly senior members of other parties, joining the PML(Q) after the elections upon being offered positions. Musharraf nominated Shaukat Aziz, the minister for finance and a former employee of Citibank and head of Citibank Private Banking as the new prime minister.

Women's rights

The National Assembly voted in favor of the “Women's Protection Bill” on 15 November 2006 and the Senate approved it on 23 November 2006. President General Pervez Musharraf signed into law the “Women's Protection Bill”, on 1 December 2006. The bill places rape laws under the penal code and allegedly does away with harsh conditions that previously required victims to produce four male witnesses and exposed the victims to prosecution for adultery, if they were unable to prove the crime. However, the Women's Protection bill has been criticized heavily by many for paying continued lip service and failing to address the actual problem by its roots: repealing the Hudood Ordinance. In this context, Musharraf has also been criticized by women and human rights activists for not following up his words by action. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) said that "The so-called Women's Protection Bill is a farcical attempt at making Hudood Ordinances palatable" outlining the issues of the bill and the continued impact on women.
His government increased reserved seats for women in assemblies, to increase women's representation and make their presence more effective. Compared with 1988 seats in the National Assembly were increased from 20 to 60. In provincial assemblies 128 seats were reserved for women. This situation has brought out increase participation of women for 1988 and 2008 elections.
In March 2005, a couple of months after the rape of a Pakistani physician, Dr. Shazia Khalid, working on a government gas plant in the remote Baluchistan province, Musharraf was criticized for pronouncing, Captain Hammad, a fellow military man and the accused in the case, innocent before the judicial inquiry was complete. Following the rape, riots erupted in the local Bugti clan of the province, where the rape took place. They saw a rape in their heartland as being a breach of their code of honor and attacked the gas plant. In an uncompromising response Musharraf sent tanks, helicopters and an extra 4,500 soldiers to guard the installation. If the tribesmen failed to stop shooting, he warned on television, "they will not know what hit them". Shazia was later forced and threatened by the government to leave the country.
In an interview to the Washington Post in September 2005 Musharraf said that Pakistani women, who were the victims of rape, treated rape as a "moneymaking concern" and were only interested in the publicity in order to make money and get a Canadian visa. He subsequently denied making these comments, but the Washington Post made available an audio recording of the interview, in which Musharraf could be heard making the quoted remarks. Musharraf also denied Mukhtaran Mai, a Pakistani rape victim, the right to travel abroad, until pressured by US State Department. The remarks made by Musharraf sparked outrage and protests both internationally and in Pakistan by various groups i.e. women groups, activists. In a rally, held close to the presidential palace and Pakistan's parliament, hundreds of women demonstrated in Pakistan demanding Musharraf apologize for the controversial remarks about female rape victims.


Pervez Musharraf led Pakistan from 1999 to 2008.
After his resignation, Musharraf went for a pilgrimage to Mecca. He then went on a lucrative speaking tour through the Middle East, Europe, and United States. Chicago-based Embark LLC was one of the international public-relations firms trying to land Musharraf as a highly paid keynote speaker.[According to Embark President David B. Wheeler, the speaking fee for Musharraf would be in the $150,000–200,000 range for a day plus jet and other V.I.P. arrangements on the ground.

Return to politics

Since quitting politics in 2008, Musharraf has been in London in self-imposed exile. Musharraf launched his own political party, the All Pakistan Muslim League, in June 2010.
On 1 October 2010, Musharraf officially launched his political party as a President of the party, All Pakistan Muslim League.
Since the start of 2011, news has been circulating that Musharraf will return to Pakistan before the next national elections. He himself has vowed this in several interviews. On Piers Morgan Tonight, Musharraf announced his plans to return to Pakistan on March 23, 2012 in order to seek the Presidency in 2013.

Personal life

Musharraf is the second son with two brothers — Javed and Naved. Javed became a high-ranking foreign service officer in the Pakistan Army. Naved is an anesthesiologist who has lived in Chicago since his medical residency at Cook County Hospital in 1956. Naved is married to an American wife - Linda - and has two children.
Musharraf married Sehba on 28 December 1968. Sehba is from Okara. They have a daughter, Ayla, and a son, Bilal. He named Bilal after a close friend that died in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971. Bilal is an actuary in Boston for the state government of Massachusetts. Bilal is married. Ayla is an architect married to a musician and they have a daughter Mariam.
Musharraf published his autobiography — In the Line of Fire: A Memoir — in 2006.
As President, he had two Pekingese pet dogs.

   NEWS
: In a recent meeting of his All Pakistan Muslim League’s central executive committee in Dubai, former president General (Retd) Pervez Musharraf expressed his serious dismay at the performance of his party office-bearers.

These leaders include Barrister Muhammad Ali Saif, Ahmed Raza Kasuri, Rashid Qureshi and others, it was reliably learnt here on Friday.

“The former president is seriously perturbed by the poor performance of some leaders of the All Pakistan Muslim League (APML) and did not mince words in expressing his dismay in this regard during the two-day meeting,” said a participant of the meeting while talking to The News.

The APML insider said that Musharraf might possibly address a press conference in Dubai on December 31 and services of the media would fully be used to make the event important in Pakistan.

He said that before addressing the press conference, the former president would deliver telephonic address to gatherings in Punjab and other provinces to assess the position of his party in Pakistan.

“The two-day central executive committee meeting convened by the APML chief in a big hotel in Dubai was attended by nearly 70 people,” the source said. “The party chief also met with most of the participants of the meeting separately and inquired about the performance of various office-bearers of his party,” he said. The APML leader said that Musharraf looked highly dejected with the performance of his party. He said that as a political gimmick, the former president might also announce in his expected press conference on December 31 his comeback plans, possibly before the already announced date of March 31, 2012. However, he said, the announcement of the former president’s comeback depends on the success of the public meetings to be addressed by him by telephone.

When contacted by The News, Major General (Retd) Rashid Qureshi said it could not be termed as the dismay of General (Retd) Musharraf at the performance of the party leaders. However, he definitely asked all the party leaders to fully concentrate on the organisation of the party and complete organisational work at the earliest.

“Because earlier we believed that we still have some months but keeping in view the existing circumstances, it does not seem so,” he said. When asked again whether the former president was pleased with or dismayed at the performance of the APML leaders, Rashid Qureshi again said that Musharraf believes now the time is very short so the party’s organisation work should be completed befittingly and at the earliest and there should be no laxity in this regard.

This correspondent tried to contact some other APML leaders for comments but none was ready to say anything on the record about the proceedings of the party’s central executive meeting in Dubai.