KARACHI: Top government and military leaders will attend the funeral today, Tuesday, of former Pakistani president and army chief, General Pervez Musharraf, whose body was flown into Karachi from Dubai the night before, a close aide of the military ruler said.
In 2022, Musharraf’s family said he had been hospitalized due to complications from a rare organ disease called amyloidosis. He died on Sunday at a Dubai hospital, aged 79.
Aziz-ur-Rehman, the central secretary general of Musharraf’s All-Pakistan Muslim League (APML) party, said President Dr. Arif Alvi, Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, General Sahir Shamshad Mirza, the governor of the Sindh province and other top government officials and politicians would attend the funeral.
“The former president will be buried at a military graveyard inside Malir cantonment,” Rehman told Arab News.
Musharraf’s body and his family reached Karachi via special flight from Dubai on Monday night, state-run Radio Pakistan reported.
In 1998, after a military career spanning 37 years, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, the brother of Pakistan’s current prime minister, appointed Musharraf as army chief. The following year, he seized power and toppled Sharif’s government, citing the deteriorating political and economic conditions in Pakistan.
In 2002, Musharraf was appointed president, a title he held in addition to army chief, after winning more than 90 percent of the vote in a controversial national referendum. He stepped down as army chief in 2007 and as president in 2008.
Musharraf subsequently lived in London but returned to Pakistan in 2013 to contest elections. However, he instead faced a slew of court cases and was subsequently banned for life from holding public office.
In 2016, he left Pakistan for medical treatment in Dubai, where he died on Feb. 5.
