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Pakistan's former president General Pervez Musharraf, who seized power in a coup in 1999, has died aged 79. The former leader - who was president between 2001 and 2008 - died in Dubai after a long illness, a statement from the country's army said. He had survived numerous assassination attempts, and found himself on the front line of the struggle between militant Islamists and the West. He supported the US "war on terror" after 9/11 despite domestic opposition. In 2008 he suffered defeat in the polls and left the country six months later. When he returned in 2013 to try...

Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan’s former president who has been living outside the country, was sentenced to death in absentia Tuesday on charges of high treason stemming from his decision to suspend the constitution and detain judges in 2007.

Osama bin Laden's 16-year-old son led a suicide bomb squad sent to kill Pakistan opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, according to her own claims. Before she was assassinated in December the former prime minister claimed she had been warned that four such death teams would try to kill her. And the naming of bin Laden's teenage son, Hamza, could now strengthen claims that he is being groomed as a future leader of the al Qaeda terror group. In 2001, he appeared in a joint Taliban and al Qaeda video of a militant attack on a Pakistan army camp in South Waziristan,...

SIHALA, Pakistan (AP) — The leader of a banned Muslim extremist group blamed in the deaths of hundreds of people was released Wednesday by Pakistani authorities, who said they have no evidence to continue holding him. Maulana Azam Tariq, whose pro-Taliban group, Sipah-e-Sahaba, has been labeled a terrorist organization by the United States, had been detained for 13 months without being formally charged. A Lahore appeals court ruled Monday that the government would have to release him if it could not produce evidence against him. ``We do not have any case against him and we have set him free as...

“Around 600 students of Jamia Hafsa and Jamia Fareedia have not returned to their homes after the Lal Masjid operation. These are the people called ‘missing students’ and they are hiding in madrassas and mosques in and around the two cities Islamabad and Rawalpindi. They are walking bombs and are determined to blow themselves up any time, anywhere,” said a source directly involved in the ongoing investigation of suicide blasts in the country.Lal Masjid prayer leader Maulana Abdul Aziz said that five to six hundred students of the two madrassas had been trained, equipped and brainwashed to carry out suicide...

File picture of former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf. (Agence France-Presse) LAHORE: Former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has admitted in an interview that Islamabad supported and trained groups like the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) in the 1990s to carry out militancy in Kashmir. The former army chief has also said that Lashkar leaders like Hafiz Saeed and Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi enjoyed the status of heroes at that time. Speaking to Pakistani news channel Dunya News on Sunday, Mr Musharraf said, "In the 1990s, the freedom struggle began in Kashmir...At that time, Lashkar-e- Taiba and 11 or 12 other organisations were formed. We supported...

Former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf wants to leave the country to undergo medical treatment for a heart condition abroad, defense lawyers in his high treason trial said Friday. […] Two defense lawyers said the board recommended Musharraf urgently undergo an angiography—a medical imaging technique used to visualize the blood vessels of the heart to look for heart disease. One of the lawyers said Musharraf had doubts about the quality of medical care he could receive in Pakistan. […] Prosecutor Akram Sheikh said Musharraf simply wants to leave the country and railed against the retired general for not trusting the military...

Pakistan’s government plans to put former President Pervez Musharraf on trial for treason for declaring a state of emergency and suspending the constitution while in power, the interior minister said Sunday. Musharraf, a former army chief, would be the first military ruler tried for treason in a country that has experienced three military coups in its 66-year history. He could face the death penalty or life in prison if he is convicted of treason, but some question whether the country’s powerful army actually will let that happen. Musharraf has maintained his innocence. …

(Reuters) - Pakistan rearrested former president Pervez Musharraf on Thursday after accusations that he was personally responsible for the deaths of more than 100 people when he ordered commandos to storm the Red Mosque in 2007. The operation at the radical mosque in the capital of Islamabad followed a week-long standoff between the mosque's supporters and security forces. The rearrest came after Musharraf had been granted bail in three other cases and his lawyer said on Wednesday he was cleared to leave the country.

A court in Pakistan charged former military dictator Pervez Musharraf on Tuesday with the 2007 murder of Benazir Bhutto in an unprecedented move likely to anger the all-powerful army.

Former Pakistani military ruler Pervez Musharraf and his security team pushed past policemen and sped away from a court in the country’s capital on Thursday after his bail was revoked in a case in which he is accused of treason. Local TV broadcast footage of the dramatic scene in which Musharraf jumped into a black SUV and escaped as a member of his security team hung to the side of the vehicle. He sped away to his large compound on the outskirts of Islamabad that is protected by high walls, razor wire and guard towers. This week has gone from...

Islamabad - Musharraf's admission that Pakistani leaders agreed to even a limited number of strikes counters their repeated criticism of a programme they long claimed the US was operating without their approval. Former Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf has admitted that his government had secretly signed off on US drone strikes. This is the first time a top past or present Pakistani official has admitted publicly to such a deal. Pakistani leaders long have openly challenged the drone program and insisted they had no part in it. However, Musharraf, during an interview in Islamabad, insisted Pakistan's government signed off on strikes...

Former army chief General (Retd) Pervez Musharraf has said that Pak-US relations have reached a critical stage and it's time Pakistan took a decisive action in this regard. Speaking exclusively to Geo News on Aaj Kamran Khan Kay Saath, Musharraf said that the time has come for the army and ISI to come down the fence and decide to take or not to take action against Haqqani network. Otherwise, things may take a turn for worse, he said, adding indecisiveness is not going to help the situation at all. Musharraf went on to say that Pakistan should boldly take US...

Exiled former president Pervez Musharraf said on Sunday he would return to Pakistan later this month to lead his recently formed party in campaigning for a parliamentary election, despite the possibility of his arrest and concern over his security. "There are efforts to scare me, but these people don't know that I'm not among the afraid," Musharraf told a rally of about 8,000 supporters in the commercial center Karachi via video link from Dubai. The former general said he would return between January 27 and 30 and dismissed concern about his security. "I have fought wars. I am not scared...

Urgent action is needed to salvage Pakistan's dire relations with the United States, former president Pervez Musharraf told Reuters on Sunday, after announcing he would return home soon to re-enter politics. U.S.-Pakistan relations were plunged further into crisis in November when NATO helicopters and fighter jets killed as many as 28 Pakistani troops in attacks on two military outposts in northwest Pakistan. "Today Pakistan-U.S. relations are at their lowest, this is because of a trust and confidence deficit," Musharraf told Reuters in an interview in Dubai.

REPORTING FROM ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN -- Former President Pervez Musharraf said Sunday that he planned to return to Pakistan in late January to prepare to campaign for elections, but authorities said he would be arrested as soon as he arrived at the airport. Musharraf made the announcement by phone from the Persian Gulf emirate of Dubai to a gathering of supporters in Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city, saying he would arrive between Jan. 27 and Jan. 30. “I ran Pakistan successfully for 10 years and steered it toward prosperity,” Pakistani media quoted Musharraf as saying. Musharraf is wanted in Pakistan on charges...

Pakistan should consider establishing ties with Israel, said exiled former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, remarks likely to anger many in the Muslim-majority country where he hopes to make a political comeback. Musharraf, who resigned in 2008 in disgrace, has said he plans to return to Pakistan this month, despite possible arrest, in order to participate in a parliamentary election due by 2013. … Speaking in favor of relations with Israel could make Musharraf more unpopular, especially among militants who made several attempts on his life with bombings because of his support for the U.S. "war on terror" following the 9/11...

Washington: Pakistani military had harboured Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden with the knowledge of former president General Pervez Musharraf, former army chief General Ziauddin Butt has said.

Mr Musharaff told The Daily Telegraph that it was important for his country to spell out to the world why the Haqqani network was being allowed to operate on its soil... "Certainly if Afghanistan is being used by India to create an anti-Pakistan Afghanistan, we would like to prevent that." He said the Haqqani group was the source of a "terrible" lack of trust and confidence and added: "The United States must understand Pakistan has its own national interest. The United States must accept the compulsions of Pakistan and give assurances." ... Mr Musharraf said Pakistan must "talk straight" about...

US forces were given permission to conduct unilateral raid inside Pakistan if they knew where Bin Laden was hiding, officials say The deal was struck between Pervez Musharraf and George Bush in 2001 and renewed during the 'transition to democracy' – a six-month period from February 2008 when Musharraf was still president but a civilian government had been elected. The US and Pakistan struck a secret deal almost a decade ago permitting a US operation against Osama bin Laden on Pakistani soil similar to last week's raid that killed the al-Qaida leader, the Guardian has learned. The deal was struck...