Pakistan's former President Pervez Musharraf died Thursday at a Dubai hospital after years of voluntary exile.
According to Reuters and AFP, Pakistan's military and Pakistan's delegation to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) announced the death of former President Musharraf.
"We can confirm that he passed away this morning," Shazia Shiraz, a spokesman for the Pakistani consulate in Dubai, told Reuters.
Pakistan's army, navy and air force chiefs also expressed condolences over his death, the ministry said.
Musharraf rose to power in 1999 after then-Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif replaced him as Army chief of staff, causing a coup and ousting Sharif. He was then sworn in as president in 2002.
However, it faced public opposition by declaring a national emergency in November 2007 and suppressing civil liberties and human rights democratic procedures until February of the following year.
After losing the 2008 general election, he resigned from his post and lived in exile in Britain and elsewhere when the opposition party proceeded with the impeachment process in August of that year.
He returned to Korea in 2013 to run for the general election again but was indicted on charges of treason for declaring an emergency. Since then, he has not returned since leaving for Dubai in March 2016 due to spinal diseases.
A Pakistani court sentenced Musharraf to death in December 2019 on charges of subversion and treason, but the second trial ruled it unconstitutional and invalidated the death sentence. [News 1]