Pervez Musharraf

From The D Archives

Pervez Musharraf (Urdu: پرويز مشرف) (IPA: /ˈpəɹ.vɛz muˈʃɑɹ.əf/[1]) (born August 11, 1943) is the current President of Pakistan, and former[2] Chief of Army Staff of the Pakistan Army. He came to power in 1999 by effecting a military coup d'état and has suspended the constitution of Pakistan twice; since then, he has been actively supported (through military and monetary aid) by western countries including the United States. He took power on October 12, 1999, ousting Nawaz Sharif, the elected Prime Minister, dismissed the national and provincial legislative assemblies, assumed the title of Chief Executive and became Pakistan's de facto head of government, thereby becoming the fourth Army chief of Pakistan to have assumed executive control. Later in 2001, Musharraf appointed himself to the office of President of Pakistan.

On November 3, 2007, only days before a bench of the Supreme Court of Pakistan was to decide on a petition challenging the constitutional validity of his re-election as president in the controversial October 2007 elections, he, as Chief of Army Staff, suspended the constitution, jailed several justices and lawyers of the supreme court including Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, ordered the arrest of political dissidents and human rights activists, and shut down all private television channels.[3] He declared an emergency. On November 24, 2007, the Pakistan Election Commission confirmed his re-election as President.