Pervez Musharraf was born in 1943 in Delhi, India and grew up in Karachi, Pakistan. He had a middle class upbringing and received his early education in Turkey and later in Pakistan. Musharraf joined the Pakistan Military Academy in 1961 and was commissioned as an artillery officer in 1964. He fought in the 1965 war with India and rose through the ranks to become Army Chief of Staff and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee in 1998. In 1999, Musharraf seized power in a bloodless coup and became the head of state as Chief Executive of Pakistan, a role he held until being formally elected President in 2002.