Pervez Musharraf

Pervez Musharraf in 2004

General Pervez Musharraf (Urdu: پرويز مشرف; born 11 August 1943 – 5 February 2023) was de facto Head of Government (using the title Chief Executive and assuming extensive powers) of Pakistan on 12 October 1999, following a bloodless coup d'état. He assumed the office of President of Pakistan (becoming Head of State) on 20 June 2001.

Quotes

• If we want to normalize relations between Pakistan and India and bring harmony to the region, the Kashmir dispute will have to be resolved peacefully through a dialogue, on the basis of the aspirations of the Kashmiri people. Solving the Kashmir issue is the joint responsibility of our two countries … Mr Vajpayee, … I take you up on this offer. Let us start talking in this spirit.
  • Quoted in Sumantra Bose (2003). Kashmir: Roots of Conflict, Paths to Peace. Harvard University Press. 

• The excesses committed during the unfortunate period are regrettable.
  • About the 1971 Bangladesh war. In a recent State visit to Bangladesh in July 2002, Pakistan’s President Gen. Pervez Musharraf wrote in a visitors’ book at the Savar War Memorial that “the excesses committed during the unfortunate period are regrettable.” [1]

• I think they'd both lose miserably.
  • Interview on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, when asked who would win in a Pakistani election - George W. Bush or Osama Bin Laden.

• We are in a state where these semi-literate clerics are closing the minds of people.
  • Pakistan's President Says Muslim Nations Should Stop Blaming Others (May 2007)

• “Kashmiris who came to Pakistan received a hero reception here. We used to train them and support them. We considered them as Mujahideen who will fight with the Indian Army. Then, various terrorist organisations like Lashkar-e-Taiba rose in this period. They (jihadi terrorists) were our heroes.” ... [Osama bin Laden and Jalaluddin Haqqani were] “Pakistani heroes”. “In 1979, we had introduced religious militancy in Afghanistan to benefit Pakistan, and to push the Soviets out of the country. We brought Mujahideen from all over the world, we trained them and supplied weapons to them. We trained the Taliban, sent them in. They were our heroes. Haqqani was our hero. Osama bin Laden was our hero. Ayman al-Zawahiri was our hero. Then the global environment changed. The world started viewing things differently. Our heroes were turned into villains.”…
  • As Quoted in “Watch: Pervez Musharraf Says ‘Osama bin Laden Was Pakistan’s Hero,'” ANI, (14 November 2019) [2]

• General Musharraf commented on the Hamood-ur Rehman Commission report while at the UN Millennial Conference in New York, in September 2000. He said. Let s forget the bitterness of the past and move forward. [....] Something happened 30 years ago. Why do we want to live in history? As a Pakistani, I would like to forget 1971.
  • quoted in Y Rosser, Indoctrinating Minds: Politics of Education in Bangladesh. 2004 page 83

Quotes about

• I wish President Musharraf well, we want to work with him to bring greater balance in our own relations. But I have to be realistic enough to recognize the role that terrorist elements have played in the last few years in the history of Pakistan. Taliban was the creation of Pakistan extremists, the Wahabi Islam which has flourished, thousands and thousands of schools, the madrassas, were set up to preach this jihad based on hatred of other religions . . . and Pakistan is not a democracy in the sense that we know and you know. . . . We wish Pakistan success in emerging as a moderate Muslim state. We will work with President Musharraf . . . but we have to recognize what has happened.
  • Manmohan Singh, as quoted in "Interview: Indian Prime Minister Singh", The Washington Post (20 July 2005)

• General Pervez Musharaff, supposedly an ally in the fight against Islamic terrorism, seized power in Pakistan with a military coup that overthrew an elected government. He appointed himself president in 2001 and then attempted to legitimize his rule by being elected in 2002. However, the election was heavily boycotted and did not come close to meeting international standards. Musharraf agreed to step down as head of the military at the end of 2004, but then changed his mind, claiming that the nation needed to unify its political and military elements and that he could provide this unity. He justified his decision by stating, "I think the country is more important than democracy." Musharraf was an ardent supporter of Afghanistan's Taliban regime. Yet his greater transgression concerns Pakistan's role in the spread of nuclear technology. In early 2004 it was revealed that Abdul Qadeer Khan, the head of Pakistan's nuclear weapons development program, had been selling nuclear technology to the dictatorships of North Korea, Libya, and Iran. Musharraf claimed, rather unconvincingly, that he knew nothing about this dangerous and illict trade. He also gave Khan an unconditional pardon.
  • David Wallechinsky, Tyrants: The World's 20 Worst Living Dictators (2006), pp. 5-6

Also See

• Pakistan
• Lahore
• Imran Khan
• Benazir Bhutto
• Shahid Afridi
• Law
• Akhtar Aly Kureshy
• Asif Ali Zardari
• Nawaz Sharif