Former Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf critically ill in Dubai

The Family of Pakistan’s Pervez Musharraf says he is critically ill and has been hospitalised in Dubai since last month, asking asked for prayers for Musharraf’s health while denying local media reports back home that he is on a ventilator.
Musharraf has been living in the United Arab Emirates since 2016, when he was allowed to leave Pakistan on bail to seek medical treatment abroad.
A death sentence against him, handed down in absentia in 2020 in a treason case related to the state of emergency that Musharraf imposed in 2007 while in power, was later overturned.
Over the years, the former president was said to be very ill and was unlikely to travel home to face the sentence. Friday’s statement from Musharraf’s family, posted on Twitter, followed newspaper reports in Pakistan and statements attributed to his friends saying he was gravely ill.
Musharraf’s family said the former military ruler General has been suffering from amyloidosis, a chronic metabolic disease in which abnormal proteins build up and damage organs such as the heart, kidney and liver.
Musharraf seized power in 1999 by ousting the elected government of then-Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
Under his rule, Pakistan became a key ally of the United States in the war on terror following the 11 September 2001 terror attacks on America.
He approved NATO’s transport of military equipment to land-locked Afghanistan through Pakistan and for the US to use Pakistan’s air bases for logistic support.
In 2007, he imposed an emergency rule and placed several key judges under house arrest in the capital, Islamabad, and elsewhere in Pakistan.