Officials: Plane carrying Musharraf's body lands in Pakistan

Officials say a plane transporting the body of Pakistan’s former president Pervez Musharraf from the United Arab Emirates arrived in Karachi amid tight security

Pakistan Obit Pervez Musharraf (AP2000)

A special plane transporting the body of Pakistan's former president Pervez Musharraf from the United Arab Emirates arrived in Karachi on Monday amid tight security, immigration officials said.

Family members were also on board when the plane landed at the airport in the city where he will be buried Tuesday. Musharraf, who died at age 79, seized power in a bloodless coup in 1999 by ousting the elected government of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif.

Musharraf died in Dubai on Sunday after a prolonged illness.

During his tenure as president, Musharraf made Pakistan a key ally of Washington in the war on terror after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the United States. That angered militants who at least twice tried to assassinate him in the city of Rawalpindi in 2003, but he escaped unhurt.

Musharraf was forced to resign in 2008 by the party of former president Asif Ali Zardari when his allies lost parliamentary elections. Pakistan later allowed him to leave the country on bail to travel to Dubai in 2016 for medical treatment. He remained there after being sentenced to death for treason.

Pakistan last year said Musharraf would not be arrested if his family wanted to bring him back home. But Musharraf's doctors and his family said his treatment was not available in Pakistan.