Ousted president of Egypt Hosni Mubarak who ruled the country with an iron fist for three decades is dead, leaving his authoritarian legacy intact. He rose to prominence for his role in the 1973 Yom Kippur war against Israel as the commander of air force, and became president after Anwar Sadat was assassinated by a suspected Islamist for signing a separate peace deal with Israel. Ignoring public sentiments, he faithfully guarded the peace deal in return for US' political support and $1.3 billion in annual aid. Throughout his rule, he kept the Gaza Crossing closed at Israel's behest, denying Gaza inhabitants access to humanitarian supplies from Egypt. Unsurprising, commenting on his passing, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has praised what he termed as his commitment to "peace and security." Nonetheless, a shrewd operator, Mubarak was careful - as disclosed by an ex-PM of Israel, Ehud Barak, in an interview following his death -not to pressure Yasser Arafat into accepting something he deemed further damaging to the Palestinian cause. That seems to be the reason Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has expressed "great sorrow" over his demise.

Inside the country, corruption and cronyism characterised Hosni Mubarak's rule as a vast majority of the people lived in poverty. Political dissent was crushed ruthlessly. Opponents were either silenced or jailed and tortured. Elections were a single party affair and he the only choice. Simmering public discontent finally erupted in a popular uprising in 2011, to which he responded with brute force. Some 846 people were killed, thousands others injured, and scores imprisoned. Still, he failed to stem the tide of public anger, and stepped down handing over power to a military-appointed dispensation. In the ensuing unavoidable multi-party elections, the Muslim Brotherhood won a comfortable majority and named Mohamed Morsi as president. Morsi appointed Gen Addul Fateh Sisi as minister of defence, replacing the Mubarak-era Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi. But just after a year at the helm he was deposed in a coup by Gen Sisi, who is said to have only intensified the Mubarak-era policies.

Whilst the country's first-ever elected leader Morsi died during trial from untreated ailments in jail, Mubarak, on the other hand, was exonerated of most charges in due course. Thousands of Egyptians took to the streets to protest against Mubarak's acquittal. President Sisi's office has, however, hailed the late despot as one of the "heroes of the October 1973 war with Israel" but to many Egyptians Mubarak was a relic, a latter-day pharaoh.