The rise & fall of Pervez Musharraf Early life Pervez Musharraf was born in Delhi on August 11, 1943 to Syed Musharraf-uddin and Zarin ar the Neharwali Haveli in Delhi. Karachi. At the age of four, his family moved to Pakistan in the wake of Partition. He did his schooling from Saint Patrick`s School and completed his graduation from Forman Christian College in Lahore. An Armyman He began his career in 1961 when he joined Pakistan Military Academy at Kakul. He was commissioned into the Artillery Regiment in 1964. He later joined the Special Services Group. Musharraf also had a stint at the Royal College of Defence Studies of the United Kingdom. He was also a graduate of the Command and Staff College, Quetta, and the National Defence College, Rawalpindi. In the Battlefield The General was part of four wars against India, namely the ’65 War, ’71 War, Siachen Conflict and the Kargil War. He participated as a 2nd Lt in the 1965 War. He was a Company Commander in the Special Service Group (SSG) of the Commando Battalion in the 1971 War. In 1987 he played a crucial role in the Siachen Conflict and it was on his orders that the Pak Army launched an offensive and claimed two intermediate post in the Siachen Glacier before being pushed back. Ascent to the top He was appointed as the Director Genral of Military Operations by the slain Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. But it was in 1999, under the premiership of Nawaz Sharif, that he was elevated to the position of Army Chief of Staff and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Mushrraf’s rise was notable because he did not belong to the Punjabi officer class, which has a vice like grip over the Pakistan Army. Since he hailed from an Urdu speaking family, it was precisely the main reason why Nawaj Sharif favoured him for the coveted job. Sharif was assured that Musharraf’s background would deter him from creating a powerbase in the armed forces. Kargil Crisis Kargil crisis served as a prelude to his Presidency. It was under his term as the Army Chief that the Kargil operation was strategised and executed. In 1999 Pakistan backed militants, with all round support of the Army, infiltrated into India’s Kargil district. The war lasted for about three months and resulted in heavy casualties on both sides before India thwarted the nefarious designs of Pakistan. Musharraf and his other senior officers were reportedly angry at Prime Minister`s attempts to find a diplomatic way out of the crisis. The deposed PM Nawaz Sharif, who accused Musharraf of carrying out the entire operation himself while keeping him in dark, later confirmed his active role. However, Musharraf denied the claims and said that the decision to withdraw was made by Sharif under pressure from the US administration. Sharif, on the other hand, has stated that Musharraf requested him to withdraw Pakistani troops from Kashmir. A bloodless coup The Kargil conflict created a lot of bad blood between Sharif and Musharraf. On October 12, 1999, Sharif attempted to replace Musharraf by the then ISI director Ziauddin Butt. However, the General, who was abroad at the time, got wind and boarded a private airline to Pakistan. Meanwhile, senior army Generals categorically refused to accept their chief’s ouster, which was deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. What followed was a bloodless coup, which saw Sharif’s toppling – and his exile in Saudi Arabia - and Musharraf’s ascendancy as the CEO of the country. President of Pakistan On January 1, 2004 Musharraf won a confidence vote in the Electoral College of Pakistan and became the President of Pakistan. 9/11 Attack The 9/11 terrorist attacks on the US resulted in a dramatic shift in Pak policies. Musharraf was forced to renounce terrorism. He entered into a peace process with India and initiated several confidence-building measures. Turning of the tide Suspension of Judges Tide started to turn against when on March 9, 2007, Musharraf suspended the Chief Justice of Pakistan, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhary. This resulted in a widespread protest against the General. Lal Masjid issue Army action against the students holding hostages in the Lal Masjid made him very unpopular among the Pakistanis. Resignation from the Army On November 8, 2007, he resigned from the army and Parvez Ashfaq Kayani became the new Army Chief. Nawaz Sharif’s return, victory of PPP and PML-N in the elections. Allowing Sharif to return proved to be a mistake on Musharraf’s part and after the former’s party emerged as second largest in the elections for the National Assembly, behind PPP, he went after him. The two parties formed a coalition and asked the embattled President to resign or face Impeachment. The General succumbs Musharraf tried his best to find a way out but the ruling coalition was unwilling to relent. And finally on August 18, 2008, the former commando resigned, thus ending his nine year reign.