Funeral held for Pakistan ex-president Musharraf under media blackout

By AFP 7 February 2023, 4:08 pm

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In this photo released by Inter Services Public Relations, military officials and others attend funeral prayer of Pakistan's former President Pervez Musharraf, in Karachi, Pakistan, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023. (Inter Services Public Relations via AP)

Pakistan’s divisive former military ruler Pervez Musharraf is buried in a muted funeral that was never officially announced.

The country’s serving army chief, the prime minister and the president all stay away from the event, with media blocked from covering it and local television not airing the service.

Musharraf, who became a key US ally during Washington’s “war on terror” after the September 11 attacks, died exiled in Dubai on Sunday aged 79, having suffered a long illness.

In Pakistan, where the military is supremely powerful, Musharraf remains a controversial figure who left many Pakistanis with a deep distaste for direct military rule.

Prayers were held at the grounds of a military compound in Karachi in a funeral ceremony attended by around 10,000 people, mostly retired and serving military officers, an AFP reporter observes.

“He was not given the honor that he deserved… the government has done nothing — it should have arranged the funeral at the national stadium,” Rubina Mazhar, a herbal medicine doctor, tells AFP after the prayers.