From Ayub Khan to Pervez Musharraf…. Pakistan’s military dictators met a bad death, last days of their lives were spent in humiliation

Pakistan’s infamous military establishment is again back in news and of course for all wrong reasons. General Asim Munir, the present Pakistani chief has been venting out venom against India. In the last 78 years, Pakistan has been in the hands of dictators more than elected government. But these military dictators have met with a terrible fate in the last days of their lives.

In Pakistan, Ayub Khan, General Yahya Khan, General Zia-ul-Haq and as army chief, Pervez Musharraf seized power through coups and trampled the hopes of the people under their feet.

Ayub Khan

Ayub Khan was the first indigenous army chief of Pakistan, who held the responsibility from 1951 to 1958. But in 1958 Ayub Khan usurped power by removing the then President Iskandar Ali Mirza. The 1965 India-Pakistan war was Ayub Khan’s idea. But after the crushing defeat there was a rebellion against him in Pakistan and he had to resign in 1969. In the 1965 presidential election, he allegedly rigged and defeated Jinnah’s sister Fatima. In 1968-69, during the agitation against Ayub Khan across Pakistan, he suffered a heart attack. Then due to a paralysis attack, he became unable to walk and was confined to a wheel chair. Ayub Khan then resigned on March 25 1969 and handed over the command to General Yahya Khan.

Yahya Khan

After losing to India in the 1971 war, Yahya Khan handed over power to PPP leader Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. Bhutto released Sheikh Mujibur Rahman from jail and put Yahya Khan under house arrest. He was forbidden to meet anyone. According to reports, he became mentally unstable along with diabetes and heart disease. General Yahya Khan died on 10 August 1980.

General Zia-ul-Haq

General Zia-ul-Haq was the second indigenous army chief of Pakistan. When the agitation against Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who took power from Yahya Khan, intensified in 1976-77, he imposed martial law in Karachi, Lahore and Hyderabad (in Pakistan) in April 1977. Before Bhutto and the opposition parties could come to an agreement, Zia-ul-Haq staged a coup on 5 July 1977 and remained the martial law administrator until 1978. During the trial of American tanks, President Zia-ul-Haq, American ambassador Arnold Raphael, head of American military mission in Pakistan left for Islamabad by plane. But the plane crashed. General Zia and others died in it.

Pervez Musharraf

Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz chief Nawaz Sharif appointed Pervez Musharraf as the chief of Pakistan Army in 1998. But when the relations deteriorated, Sharif tried to remove him on 12 October 1999, but he himself was overthrown. After the defeat in the Kargil war, Musharraf was on target. Pervez Musharraf, who was on the plane from Colombo to Karachi, took along with him the high profile officers of the army as soon as he landed in his country and became the ruler. He first became a military dictator and then a superpower president. Musharraf was afflicted with a rare disease in Dubai in 2023. The military dictator spent the last days of his life in pain and loneliness and died in February 2023.

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