Former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf passed away today in Dubai at the age of 79.
The former leader of the Pakistani military came to power when he overthrew Nawaz Sharif in a coup in 1999. He was ostensibly an ally in the War on Terror following the attacks of September 11, 2001. However, Musharraf repeatedly denied Osama bin Laden was in Pakistan when it was exactly where he had been all along.
But when I think of Musharraf, I think of his cruelty towards former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto following her assassination in December 2007. In an interview with 60 Minutes in February 2008, Musharraf blamed Bhutto for her own assassination. "For standing up outside the car, I think it was she to blame alone -- nobody else. Responsibility is hers," said Musharraf as if the people who detonated the bomb and fired the bullets and, above all else, ordered her assassination bear no responsibility. Musharraf resigned his office later that year to avoid impeachment and went into exile.
Of course, Musharraf stood a great deal to gain from Bhutto's death and would subsequently be charged with Bhutto's murder in August 2013. For his part, Musharraf baselessly accused Bhutto's husband Asif Ali Zardari for her assassination. Bhutto's son Bilawal Bhutto Zardif, however, laid the blame at Musharaf's feet for his mother's murder.
Although Musharraf was sentenced to his death in absentia in December 2019 for imposing emergency rule in Pakistan in 2007, no verdict was ever rendered regarding his role in Bhutto's assassination.
Perhaps today marks the beginning of Musharraf's eternal punishment.
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