Nawaz recalls Oct 12 coup with a ‘heavy heart’

Former premier says there is still time to learn from past mistakes and move forward

Recalling October 12, 1999 coup when his elected government was overthrown by then military chief Pervez Musharraf, PML-N supremo and former premier Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday called for learning a “lesson” from the country’s “painful history”, adding that “still there is time” to move forward.

“Today, on October 12, the Constitution was trampled, the law was broken, [and] the parliament was dissolved,” Nawaz stated on his official Twitter handle from London.

The country witnessed the fourth coup on October 12, 1999 when then army chief Pervez Musharraf toppled the PML-N’s government and took over the reins.

Nawaz lamented that the country had seen four martial laws – first on October 7, 1958 by Iskandar Mirza; second on March 25, 1969 by General Yahya Khan; third on July 5, 1977 by General Ziaul Haq and fourth on October 12, 1999 by General Pervez Musharraf.

He questioned how the country would progress when the elected governments were toppled by military dictators so many times.

“Today is the day to learn from this painful history of Pakistan. [We had] stumbled many times [and] suffered a lot.”

Nawaz said “still there is time” to learn from the past mistakes and move forward.