As you do, so you will fill.

It was November 1995, when Shahbaz Sharif returned to Lahore after spending a long time in London, he was arrested. This was the time when Farooq Leghari was the President and Mrs. Benazir Bhutto was the Prime Minister. The Interior Minister, Major General (retd) Naseerullah Khan Babar, had assigned a senior FIA officer, Rehman Malik, to find the Sharif family's properties abroad.

After his arrest, Shahbaz Sharif was brought to Adiala Jail Rawalpindi instead of being kept in Kot Lakhpat Jail Lahore. His meetings were restricted here. Only close relatives were allowed to meet him. Gujar Khan was well-known to PML-N MPA Chaudhry Riaz in Adiala Jail. Through him, I kept receiving messages from Shahbaz Sharif from the jail. One day, I received a message that Shahbaz Sharif wanted to meet me. I asked how the meeting would be held.

A trusted employee of Shahbaz Sharif gave me Mian Shahid Shafi's identity card and said that Shahid Sahib is Shahbaz Sharif's cousin, you can meet him on his identity card. I knew Shahid Sahib from my student days, he used to play with me in the Model Town Cricket Club. There was some resemblance in appearance too. At that time, there were no private TV channels and the common people did not recognize me more than my appearance. So I became Shahid Shafi and reached Adiala Jail.

I also met Shahbaz Sharif, he told me some background of the cases against him, but this meeting could not be kept secret. Both the President and the Prime Minister came to know, if they wanted, they could have taken some action against me, but it was saved. After that, whenever I met Mian Shahid Shafi, I would ask him out of curiosity, "Do you want my identity card?" He passed away last week. When I got the news of his death, I remembered the time when I used his identity card to go to Adiala Jail to meet Shahbaz Sharif. May Allah Almighty forgive Mian Shahid Shafi.

How quickly time passes and changes. Today Imran Khan is in Adiala Jail and Shahbaz Sharif is the Prime Minister of Pakistan. I was asking myself, "Can I meet Imran Khan in jail today despite a court order?" I answered myself in the negative. Even twenty-five or thirty years ago, democracy in Pakistan was not that strong, but some illusion of this democracy still existed. Politicians used to file false cases against each other, were used by secret agencies, and even got each other punished by the courts, but still some tolerance existed.

Now the Election Commission of Pakistan has disqualified the opposition leader of the National Assembly and the Senate, as well as the Punjab Assembly. On July 31, 2025, this column informed you that the opposition leader in the National Assembly, Omar Ayub Khan, is confident that he will be convicted by some court and disqualified by the Election Commission. Within a week of the publication of this column, Omar Ayub Khan was convicted and disqualified. The government's position is that the rule of law is being established by punishing those involved in the incidents of May 9, 2023.

Weren't cases filed against Murad Raas and Farrukh Habib on May 9? Both left PTI and both were not punished. When the law is made a joke instead of establishing the rule of law through the sentences of the courts and the incompetence of the Election Commission, then understand that the ruling class is extremely scared. In my poor opinion, PTI should not have announced a political protest on August 5 because August 5 is observed as Kashmir Exploitation Day. If PTI did wrong, did the Election Commission do any good by disqualifying Omar Ayub Khan, Shibli Faraz and several other MPs on August 5? It seems that everyone has become blinded by revenge.

Pakistan's democracy has been made into a story of the helplessness of the constitution and law. The PTI members claim that the atrocities happening today have never happened before. When they are told that all this has happened before, they do not believe it. Let's leave aside what I read in books. Liaquat Ali Khan does not mention the political opponents whom Pradhan and General Ayub Khan punished and disqualified through Hebdo. Let me mention the arrests and disqualifications of politicians whom I have seen with my own eyes as a journalist. Where do I start and where do I end? President Asif Zardari has spent a total of more than 13 years in prison.

The last time he was arrested was in 2020 during the tenure of Imran Khan. Zardari Sahib had once told the then DG ISI Faiz Hameed that times do not take long to change, lest you get punished and the file for your pardon comes to me. Faiz Hameed had planned to remain in the post of Army Chief for ten to fifteen years, but he did not understand at that time. Perhaps he has understood a little now.

The last arrest of today's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also took place in 2020 from the premises of the Lahore High Court. Several ministers of the current cabinet, including Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar, Defense Minister Khawaja Asif, Ahsan Iqbal, Hanif Abbasi, Aleem Khan, Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui and Mustafa Kamal, have spent time in jail.

Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was sentenced to five years in prison and disqualification during the Nawaz Sharif regime in April 1999. A few years later, the same Nawaz Sharif was sentenced to seven years in prison and disqualification in 2018. Whenever Nawaz Sharif and Shehbaz Sharif were arrested, no protest movement was successful for their release. Today, Imran Khan is arrested. No protest movement has been successful for his release yet. We have seen with our own eyes the arrests, disqualifications and the torn power of all of them. These gentlemen were no more powerful than General Zia-ul-Haq and General Pervez Musharraf. Dictators ended badly.

They also filled it as they did, unfortunately no one has learned from their mistakes. All of them are trapped in a vicious cycle. When Imran Khan was the Prime Minister, he used to threaten Asif Zardari and Shehbaz Sharif with his hand over his mouth. Today, Shehbaz Sharif is the Prime Minister, meeting Imran Khan in jail has been made difficult. However, the only lesson from the past thirty years of history is that times do not take long to change. Whatever you do, you will fill it.