Pervez Musharraf's funeral prayers offered in Karachi

KARACHI: The funeral prayers of former president General (retd) Pervez Musharraf were offered at a mosque in Malir Cantonment’s Polo Ground on Tuesday, ARY News reported.

The former army chief, who passed away in Dubai on Feb 5, will be laid to rest at military graveyard near Kala Pull.

Former army chiefs Qamar Javed Bajwa, Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and Aslam Beg attended the funeral.

On Monday night, a special plane from Dubai carrying Musharraf’s body landed at the Karachi airport.

The 79-year-old former president and chief of army staff had been suffering from amyloidosis, a rare disease caused by a build-up of an abnormal protein called amyloid in organs and tissues throughout the body.

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Born on August 11, 1943, in Delhi, British India, the former president’s family moved to Karachi in 1947.

Pervez Musharraf got his commission from the Pakistan Military Academy Kakul on April 19, 1961. He joined the Pakistan Army in 1964 and was a graduate of the Army Staff and Command College, Quetta.

Musharraf took over as the chief of army staff (COAS) in 1998. A year later on October 12, 1999, Gen (retd) Musharraf seized power in a coup after the then-prime minister Nawaz Sharif tried to dismiss him as army chief.

The four-star general served as the president of Pakistan from 2001 to 2008. Musharraf resigned as the president on August 18, 2008, following a movement led by the political parties.

The former military ruler left the country in March 2016 for Dubai to seek medical treatment and didn’t return to Pakistan since.

On March 30, 2014, he was indicted for suspending the Constitution on November 3, 2007. On December 17, 2019, a special court handed Musharraf death sentence in the high treason case against him.