Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday said that October 12 is the day to learn lessons from the painful history of the country. In a message posted on the social media platform Twitter, Nawaz wrote that October 12 was a day when the country’s constitution was trampled on, the law was broken and the parliament was forcibly dissolved. “We saw this circus four times, yet we are asked why Pakistan fell behind? Why was its progress pegged back?” he asked. He went on to remark that “today is a day when we learn from Pakistan’s painful history.” “We have been punched one too many times, borne too many hardships, there is still time” he wrote. Nawaz Sharif stated that there was still time and that they have to learn from history. On October 12, 1999, General Pervez Musharraf mounted a coup against Nawaz Sharif’s government and took over power. Nawaz and members of his cabinet were imprisoned before being exiled. They did not return to the country until Musharraf stepped down in 2008002E Meanwhile, Federal Minister Mian Javed Latif on Wednesday said October 12, 1999 was one of the darkest days in the history of Pakistan, when the democratic government of former prime minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif was overthrown by dictator Pervez Musharraf. The minister, in a post on his Twitter handle, said Nawaz Sharif, who had made the country’s defence impregnable, was arrested and then tried in the fake case of hijacking of Musharraf’s plane. However, the dictator despite use of all coercive measures, failed to stop Nawaz Sharif’s struggle for the supremacy of democracy and Constitution.