Couldn’t run govt without military support: Shehbaz Sharif

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ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s outgoing PM Shehbaz Sharif has admitted that even his government could not run without the support from the powerful military, reflecting its key role in the coup-prone country’s politics.

When Sharif was the opposition leader, he used to criticise his predecessor Imran Khan for running a hybrid regime. But after coming to power, he adopted the same pattern. In an interview with Geo News broadcast on Thursday, when the anchor pointed out that Pakistan was among the most prominent examples of hybrid regimes in the world today, Sharif said Khan had relied heavily on former army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa.

The military has run Pakistan directly for almost half of its history since partition in 1947.