Pervez Musharraf

Pervez Musharraf (11 August 1943 – 5 February 2023) was a Pakistani politician and military officer who served as the tenth president of Pakistan from 2001 to 2008. He overthrew Nawaz Sharif's government in the 1999 coup d'état and proclaimed himself the chief executive of Pakistan, under martial law. Prior to his career in politics, he was a four-star general and appointed as the chief of Army Staff and, later, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff by prime minister Nawaz Sharif in 1998. He was the leading architect of the Kargil War between India and Pakistan in 1999. When prime minister Nawaz unsuccessfully attempted to dismiss general Musharraf, after the war, from his command assignments, the Army GHQ took over the control of the civilian government, which allowed him to control the military and the civilian government. In 2001, Musharraf seized the presidency through a legal order and a referendum but was constitutionally confirmed in this capacity in 2004. With a new amendment to the Constitution of Pakistan, his presidency sponsored the premierships of Zafarullah Jamali and later Shaukat Aziz and played a major role in the American-led war on terror in Afghanistan. On social issues, his presidency promoted the Third Way and social liberalism under his enlightened moderation program; and on economic front, the privatisation and economic liberalisation was aggressively pursued though the Aziz's premiership that sharply rose the overall gross domestic product (GDP). However, with continued bans on trade unions and the decline of social security, economic inequality rose at a rapid rate. The Musharraf presidency also suffered with containing the religiously-motivated terrorism, violence, tribal nationalism, and Islamic fundamentalism. His presidency was also accused of violating the fundamental rights granted in the constitution. In 2007, he attempted to seize control of the Supreme Court by approving...