Pervez Musharraf was born on 11 August

1943.
He is a retired four-star general who served
as the 13th Chief of Army Staff and tenth
President of Pakistan as well as tenth
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Committee. Musharraf headed and led an
administrative military government from
October 1999 till August 2007. He ruled
Pakistan as Chief Executive from 1999 to
2001 and as President from 2001 to 2008.
Facing impeachment, he preferred to resign
on 18 August 2008.

He was born on 11 August 1943 in Delhi, British

India, four years before the partition of India. He
is the son of Syed and Zarin Musharraf. Syed
graduated from Aligarh Muslim University and
was a civil servant for the British. Zarin was
born in the early 1920s.Musharraf's first
childhood home was called neharwali haveli,
literally "mansion by the canal". The house,
located at the epicenter of India's ruling Mughal
elite, is so large that in 2001 it housed eight
different families. Syed Ahmed Khan's family
lived adjacent to the home. The home's title
deeds were written entirely in Urdu except for
his father's English signature.

Musharraf and his family left for Pakistan on one of the last
safe trains in August 1947, a few days before the partition of
India took effect. His father began to work for the new
Pakistani government and eventually joined the Foreign
Ministry. In his autobiography Line of Fire, Musharraf
elaborates on his first experience with death, after falling out of
a mango tree.
Musharraf's family moved to Ankara in 1949, when his father
became part of a diplomatic deputation from Pakistan to
Turkey. He learned to speak Turkish. He had a dog named
Whiskey that gave him a "lifelong love for dogs". He often
played sports in his youth. He left Turkey in 1956.
He returned to Pakistan in 1957. He attended Saint Patrick's
School in Karachi and Forman Christian College in Lahore.

In 1961, at age of 18, Musharraf entered the prestigious Pakistan

Military Academy at Kakul. He joined the Pakistan Army in 1964 and
was placed in an artillery regiment. During his college years in PMA
and initial joint military testings, Musharraf shared a room with PQ
Mehdi of PAF and Abdul Aziz Mirza of Navy and after giving the exams
and entranace interviews, all three cadets went to watch a worldacclaimed Urdu film, Savera, with his inter-services and college
friends, Musharraf recalls, "In the Line of Fire" published in 2006.
With his friends, Musharraf passed the standardize, physical,
psychological, and officer-training exams, he also took discussions
involving the socioeconomics issues; all three were interviewed by
joint military officers who were designated as Commandants. The
next day, Musharraf along with PQ Mehdi and Mirza reported to PMA
and were selected for their respected training in their arms of
commission.

Finally in 1964, Musharraf

graduated with a 29th PMA Long
Course together with Ali Kuli
Khan and his life-long friend
Abdul Aziz Mirza (later four-star
admiral). During this time,
Musharraf maintained his
friendship and contact with
Mirza through letters and
telephones even in difficult times
when Mirza, after joining the
Navy Special Service Group, was
stationed in East-Pakistan as a
military advisor to East Pakistan
Army.

Musharraf was a lieutenant colonel in 1974 and a colonel in

1978. As staff officer in the 1980s, he studied and taught at
Command and Staff College and National Defense University. One of
his professor at NDU was general Jehangir Karamat who served
Musharraf's guidance counselor and instructor who had significant
influence on Musharraf's philosophy and critical thinking.He did not
play any significant role in Pakistan's proxy war in the 1979
89 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. In 1987, he became a brigade
commander of a new division of the SSG near Siachen Glacier. He
was personally chosen by then-President and chief of army staff
general Zia-ul-Haq for this assignment due to Musharraf's wide
experience in mountain and arctic warfare.In September 1987, an
assault was launched under the command of Musharraf at Bilafond
La before being pushed back.