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Cover Story

An Officer and a Gentleman

Generals will come and generals will go but Pervez Musharraf will always be remembered for his modesty and his dislike of hypocrisy.

By Syed Jawaid Iqbal | March 2023

General Pervez Musharraf is no more. He was a very brave man, an outstanding soldier and a person who ruled Pakistan for nine years with outstanding success. Despite all his accomplishments, the late general was never defeated in battle but was vanquished by a debilitating disease - Amyloidosis - that was incurable. It is a painful task to write this after his death as Pakistan has lost a very sincere leader who could do so much more for the country if given reasonable time and opportunity.

I found the late general to be a very outgoing and friendly person in his position as a Chief Executive of Pakistan. There was none of that stiff upper lip that one normally attributes to an army general and chief executive of the country.

He was born in Delhi in a middle-class family and it was to the credit of the General that he never forgot his roots. The fact that he enjoyed the country’s top-most offices from a position of power and not merely as a ceremonial head did not change his demeanour in any way. This became vividly obvious when he paid a state visit to India and made it categorically clear to his hosts that during his stay in the country, he would especially visit the Dargah of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti in Ajmer to pay homage.

General Musharraf attained the highest rank of 4-star general in the Pakistan Army. He studied at St. Patrick’s School in Karachi, then at Forman Christian College in Lahore and, subsequently, at the Pakistan Military Academy, Kakul, the Command & Staff College, Quetta, the National Defence University, Islamabad and at the Royal College of Defence, UK.

His father was Syed Musharrafuddin, an Accounts Director at the Pakistan Foreign Office. His mother was Zarin Musharraf, while his siblings are Javed Musharraf, an economist and one of the Directors of the International Fund for Agricultural Development and Dr. Naved Musharraf, an anaestheologist based in Illinois, USA. He leaves behind wife Sehba Musharraf and two offspring - daughter Ayla and son Bilal.
The children never took advantage of their father’s positions, whether as President of Pakistan or as Army Chief and neither did General Musharraf encourage them to do so at any point. They were happy with being a normal family.

There are many anecdotes that show the ordinariness of the Musharraf family.

In 2003, Ayla, Gen. Musharraf’s daughter, was going with friends to the Karachi Expo Centre to attend a musical concert being held by the All Pakistan Music Conference; she was the general secretary of the Music Conference.

Since she was a bit late, the main gate had been closed and she could not enter. The security guard asked her to take a long detour and enter from the rear. Her friends asked her to tell the guard that she was the general secretary of the event and that she was the daughter of the then President of Pakistan, but she refused to do so and took the detour.

After retirement, while living in Dubai, General Musharraf was kind enough to invite me to accompany him to New Delhi to attend the “Leadership Summit”, hosted by the Times of India, as one of his guests. The General was the keynote speaker there.

We arrived in New Delhi late in the evening and as the general had various meetings, he went to bed very late. The next morning, as I peered out of my balcony at the third floor, I saw General Musharraf in his track suit having breakfast. He waved at me and asked me to come down and join him. I did.

At exactly 9.00 am that morning, General Musharraf was on the conference stage, looking spanking fresh. Karan Thapar, the well-known Indian anchor, introduced him. He addressed an audience of some 1500 people and spoke extempore. What a speech it was. It had everyone completely spellbound. The audience just kept clapping as he concluded his speech with an Urdu couplet on India and Pakistan relations:

After the session, General Musharraf decided to go to the bazaar to have chaat at the famous “Haldi Mul” – a popular brand of nimco products. The local administration was reluctant because of security reasons but the General decided to take the risk and we all went there without any prior information.

When we wanted to leave, our hosts, the Haldi Mul management, presented their products to each of us as gifts. On this, General Musharraf imposed the condition that he would pay on behalf of all of us. They accepted, though quite reluctantly.

It was always such a pleasure to visit General Musharraf. I have never seen anyone who is so concerned about his guests and their welfare. The General was an extremely sincere individual who was always so full of humanity and modesty.

Nisar A. Memon
Former Minister and Senator

President Pervez Musharraf:

A great leader, human being, family member, friend and a compassionate Pakistani has transited to eternal life but his humungous legacy remains.

Memories abound with his positive imprints on so many lives.

His foresight of water needs resulted in Mangla Dam extension, with consensus of Kashmiris home and abroad.

In addition, upon taking over the reigns of the country, he assigned a three year study for Diamer-Basha (DB) Dam upstream of Tarbela which was given a unanimous political mandate by Senate of Pakistan, based on Parliamentary Committee on Water Resources deliberations in 2003-2004 and accepted by all 4 chief ministers. DB Dam commenced since then, though progress has been painfully slow.

His vision to launch Pakistan into the 21st century led him to invest in areas like technology and electronic media by expanding it out of state control to private sector. Towards free media, he corrected the course in 2007 prior to general elections, to sail country to full civilian democracy. It was unique pleasure to witness his taking unfiltered questions from national and international media with candidness, clarity, courage and comfortableness.

He defended country not only as commando, a general but as diplomat when at Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) foreign ministers conference Khartoum 2002; he fully backed team’s efforts to yet again thwart Indian attempt to be member of OIC. His visit to Bangladesh and courageously regretting the happenings of 1971 thawed relations with brotherly country.

He supported our Senate Defence Standing Committee for defence ministry sharing military budget lines instead of just one figure, as well as detailed briefing on nuclear assets.

These are few instances to recall my working with him. It was a great privilege to have served country with him during the tumultuous period of historic transition to civilian democracy from 2002 to 2008 and witness his unmatched, unsurpassed, courageous legacy.

Whether I met General Pervez Musharraf as the Chief Executive, as President of Pakistan or as a retired army chief, I always found him to be one among us.

General Musharraf served as Chief Executive of Pakistan from October 12, 1999 to November 21, 2002. He became the 10th President of Pakistan and served in that position from June 20, 2001 to August 18, 2008. He also served as Minister of Defence from October 12, 1999 to October 23, 2002, as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee from October 8, 1998 to October 7, 2001 and as Chief of the Army Staff from October 6, 1998 to November 28, 2007.

General Musharraf commanded the I Corps, the Special Services Group and the 40th Army Division in Okara. He also served as DG Military Operations.

He was in the SSG (Special Services Group or Commandos) from 1966–1972 and was promoted to captain and then to major during this period. During the 1971 war with India, he was the company commander of a SSG commando battalion. Musharraf became a lieutenant colonel in 1974 and colonel in 1978. In 1987, he became the brigade commander of an SSG brigade stationed near the Siachen Glacier. He was personally chosen by President and Chief of Army Staff, General Ziaul Haq for this assignment due to his wide experience in mountain and arctic warfare. From 1991 to 1993, he was a major-general and held the command of the 40th Army Division as its GOC.

The battles Pervez Musharraf fought at various points in his Pakistan Army career are the Indo-Pakistan wars of 1965 and 1971, the Siachen conflict, the Kargil War and the Afghan Civil War (1996–2001). He led the 1999 coup d’état, led the Pakistan- India standoff in 2001–2002 and countered the insurgency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He was decorated with the Nishan-e-Imtiaz, Tamgha-e-Basalat, Imtiazi Sanad and Order of al-Saud.

Pervez Musharraf enjoyed life the way it should be enjoyed and was a connoisseur of art and music. The setting up of the National Academy of Performing Arts (NAPA) in Karachi goes to his credit and, to this day, no other national institution dedicated to the promotion of the arts has been established by any other leader in any part of the country.

As an active army officer, Pervez Musharraf was always popular among his comrades. This was because he was outgoing, friendly and an extroverted person who would enjoy jokes and always put in a few of his own. It was also a given that Pervez Musharraf took his army career seriously.

General Antony Walker, Commandant General of the Royal College of Defence Studies in Britain (RCDS), regarded Musharraf as one of the finest students he had seen in his entire career. He described him as a “capable, articulate and extremely personable officer, who made a valuable impact at RCDS.” Antony Walker said Pakistan was fortunate to have the services of a man of his undeniable qualities.

Istaqbal Mehdi
Former President ADB

A major feature of General Pervez Musharraf’s epoch has been continuous focus on the growth of the economy. During this period along with other sectors of the economy, enormous attention was given to the banking and corporate sectors to achieve the given objectives. As a result the banks, both local as well as foreign, got a boost. A critical factor which led to the boost to this sector was personal efforts and ardent interests of President Musharraf.

An episode which I personally witnessed and experienced during 2005-06 shall illustrate the intensity of the interest of the President to attain the growth of the banking sector. In 2005, I was heading one of the leading Development Financial Institutions (DFI), i.e. Pak Kuwait Investment Company (PKIC). One of the areas this institution concentrated on was to attract leading foreign corporations and financial institutions to Pakistan by providing them information regarding potentials available in Pakistan’s markets. In order to establish the presence of PKIC in London’s financial districts it came to an agreement with Lazard – a prestigious investment bank. This bank in those days was headed by a Pakistan-born banker. PKIC together with Lazard focused on preparing a list of corporations and financial institutions which were considered appropriate for Pakistan’s markets.

We expected that to attract important corporate bodies and people to come to Pakistan we shall need to arrange the President’s meetings with them. In 2005-06 when the President was returning from the US he stopped at London. We grabbed the opportunity and arranged his meetings with chairmen of two leading British banks. However, the time at which the meetings were fixed, a meeting of the President was also fixed with the British Prime Minister. This discordant was discussed with the President.

He was told that the meeting with the bankers was important as it would focus on the subject of extension of their activities and also attract a bank to operate in Pakistan. This was expected to create a beneficial impact on Pakistan’s economy. In view of the importance attached with these potential investments, they may be given priority. President agreed to give priority to meetings with the two bankers. He asked his staff to request the Prime Minister’s office to shift the time of the meetings. This fortunately was agreed.

The two meetings with the bank chairmen went extremely well. At the end of the two meetings, the first chairman told me that although they have recently extended their activities in Pakistan, after meeting the President they have decided to enlarge their presence in the country. The other chairman of the bank said until recently they were deliberating on the proposal of going to Pakistan. But after meeting with the President they have decided that they shall definitely commence operations in Pakistan. Sticking to the chairman’s commitments to the President the bank opened its office in Pakistan within a year or so.

There is so much that General Pervez Musharraf did for Pakistan in his 9 year tenure. He gave the country a distinct identity and a level of respect among the world’s nations that this major country so richly deserved. He had realized at a very early stage that good governance did not trickle down to the grassroots very effectively and that funds allocated for the purpose were siphoned off by the provincial governments. His answer to that was an effective application of the local bodies infrastructure. It was soon realized that under General Musharraf’s governance, power was being devolved right down to the lowest tiers.

The General Musharraf era was not one of strict military regimentation but of opening up the nation’s horizons. His foreign policy efforts helped elevate the image of Pakistan globally and even the Indians were ready to discuss the Kashmir dispute. They were convinced of General Musharraf’s sincerity, honesty and amicable handling of issues.

Early in his tenure, he sat down to devise an open media policy for the country and tread ground that many a ‘democratic’ ruler before him had conveniently circumvented. Though he was a military general with a supposedly autocratic approach, he soon demonstrated that he was not like other military men and the media were free to write and broadcast whatever they wished, so long as the content did not disrespect Islam or impact the integrity of Pakistan. He issued broadcast licenses and print media declarations liberally and instructed his government to pursue a policy of openness. That many in the media exploited this open policy for their own ends and Musharraf himself became a victim of the approach is of course another matter. When I would point out this to him in our informal discussions, he would simply smile.

General Musharraf was described as a “soldier’s soldier” who made known soon after taking over that his role model was Kemal Ataturk. His vision of Pakistan was that of a progressive, moderate Muslim state, intent on pursuing its national interests without being deterred by international criticism. He sought to rebuild faith in civil society and in Pakistan’s institutions. He wanted to give the people good governance, rebuild national self-assurance and morale, remove inter-provincial disharmony and restore national cohesion. He worked for reviving the economy and restoring the investor’s confidence.

I used to meet the General whenever I visited Dubai. It was always a great experience to spend some time in his company. There was so much to know and learn from him. The best thing was his hospitality and he made sure that his guests were always well looked-after.

Generals will come and generals will go but Pervez Musharraf will always be remembered for his modesty and his dislike of hypocrisy.

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