Musharraf, Pervez (1943– )

Pakistani general and military ruler, head of the army from 1998, emergency ruler from 1999, and president from 2001. He seized power from Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in a bloodless coup in 1999 and suspended the national assembly. He pledged to turn around the near-bankrupt economy before allowing a return to democratic rule. From September 2001 he provided backing to the US-led military campaign against Afghanistan's Taliban regime.

Musharraf was born in Delhi, and his family emigrated to Pakistan during the 1947 partition of the Indian subcontinent. He joined the army in 1964 and rose through the ranks, despite not coming from the Punjabi officer class that dominates the Pakistan army – he comes from an Urdu-speaking family in Karachi. He led artillery, infantry, and commando units before being appointed director-general of military operations by the former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. He became army chief in 1998 when Gen Jehangir Karamat resigned, two days after calling for the army to be given a key role in the country's decision making process. In July 2001 he held a summit meeting with Indian prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, but failed to make headway in the two countries' dispute over Kashmir.