He was a dictator who believed he could save a failing democracy; a U.S. ally in a society with strong anti-American leanings; a career soldier who succumbed to political ambition and was forced from office after attempting to prolong his stay.
Pervez Musharraf, the army general who seized power in Pakistan in 1999 and ruled the impoverished Muslim-majority nation for nine tumultuous years before being sentenced to death in absentia for high treason stemming from his iron-fisted invocation of emergency powers, has died, the Associated Press reported Sunday, citing a spokeswoman for the Pakistani Consulate in Dubai. He was 79.
The cause was not reported, but he had been receiving medical treatment in Dubai.
His tenure coincided with dramatic events abroad that thrust Pakistan into sharp international focus and left it awkwardly perched between the Muslim world and the West.
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