Pervez Musharraf

Pervez Musharraf (Urdu: پرویز مشرف‎; born 11 August 1943), is a Pakistani politician and a retired four-star army general who tenured as the tenth President of Pakistan from 2001 until tendering resignation, to avoid impeachment, in 2008.

Prior to seizing control of the government through a military coup d'état in 1999, Musharraf served as the Chairman joint chiefs and Chief of army staff— the appointments he secured in 1998. Although, Musharraf relinquished the position of Chairman joint chiefs in 2001, he eventually retired from military service after retiring from the army in 2007. Commissioned in the Pakistan Army in 1964, he played an active role in the Afghan civil war. Musharraf rose to national prominence when he was elevated to the four-star appointments by then-Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in October 1998. He was the mastermind of a Kargil infiltration that brought India and Pakistan to a full-fledged war in 1999. After months of contentious relations with Prime Minister Sharif, a staged military coup d'état allowed Musharraf to seize control of the government. He subsequently placed Prime Minister Sharif under a strict house-arrest before moving towards a trial against Sharif in Adiala Prison.