Pakistan former President Pervez Musharraf passes away

Feb. 5 (DAWN): Former president retired General Pervez Musharraf passed away on Sunday after a prolonged battle with the rare disease amyloidosis. He was 79.

In a statement issued immediately after his demise, Inter-Services Public Relations expressed heartfelt condolences. “May Allah bless the departed soul and give strength to the bereaved family,” the military’s media wing said.

The former military ruler was hospitalised for three weeks in June last year. “Going through a difficult stage where recovery is not possible and organs are malfunctioning. Pray for ease in his daily living,” his family said at the time in a statement via Musharraf’s official Twitter account.

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 a 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.