Pakistan’s former military ruler Mr. Pervez Musharraf passed away on Sunday after a prolonged battle with the rare disease amyloidosis. He was 79.
Shazia Siraj, spokesperson for Pakistan’s consulate in Dubai and embassy in Abu Dhabi confirmed the news to The Islamabad Telegraph Telegraph.
“I can confirm that he has passed away this morning,” she said.
Earlier, a senior security official said that the four-star general died in a hospital in Dubai on Sunday morning, according to Dawn.
“I can confirm that the late general breathed his last in Dubai this morning … He is no more,” the official, who asked not to be named, Dawn quoted AFP.
Separately, Geo TV reported that a special flight would be made to Dubai on Monday to bring Musharraf’s body back to Pakistan for burial.
In a statement issued immediately after Musharraf’s demise, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said that Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee General Sahir Shamshad and all the services chiefs express their heartfelt condolences.
“May Allah bless the departed soul and give strength to the bereaved family,” Dawn quoted the military’s media wing as saying.
Musharraf had ruled Pakistan with an iron fist after he toppled the civilian government of the former Prime Minister of Pakistan Mr. Nawaz Sharif in a bloodless coup.
The family had issued the statement after the news of his demise had started circulating on social media after some Pakistani and Indian publications carried it.
The retired general’s illness came to light in 2018 when the All Pakistan Muslim League (APML) had announced that he was suffering from the rare disease amyloidosis.
Amyloidosis is the name for a group of rare, serious conditions caused by a build-up of an abnormal protein called amyloid in organs and tissues throughout the body. The build-up of amyloid proteins (deposits) can make it difficult for the organs and tissues to work properly.
The party’s Overseas President Afzaal Siddiqui had said that Musharraf’s condition had “weakened his nervous system”. At the time he was being treated in London.
On March 30, 2014, Musharraf 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.
The former military ruler left the country in March 2016 for Dubai to seek medical treatment and didn’t return to Pakistan since.