, Columnist
Sharif's Ouster Is Bad News
Whatever one thinks of Pakistan's former prime minister, the circumstances of his ouster are troubling.
Third time unlucky.
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In Pakistan’s 70 years of existence, not one prime minister has served a full five-year term. They’ve been fired by governor-generals and army chiefs and judges. So it was always fruitless, I expect, to hope that Nawaz Sharif, elected with a massive mandate in 2013, would become the first. And so it has proved: Sharif was “disqualified” -- in fact, dismissed -- by Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Friday. The last elected prime minister before Sharif, Yousuf Raza Gilani, was also dismissed by the Supreme Court, in 2012.