ISLAMABAD: Regarded as a wily cricket captain during his international playing days, Imran Khan found himself on a sticky wicket when it came to leading Pakistan.
The 69-year-old prime minister was dismissed on Sunday following a no-confidence motion in the national assembly, days after he thought he had stymied the opposition by dissolving parliament and calling an early election.
The Supreme Court ruled his action illegal on Thursday, and having lost his majority in the assembly, Khan ran out of options.
Khan enjoyed genuine popular support when he became premier in 2018, but critics say he has failed to deliver on promises to revitalise the economy and improve the lives of the poor.
Khan's Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party was voted in by millions who grew up watching him play cricket, where he excelled as an allrounder and captained Pakistan to World Cup victory in 1992.
The PTI overturned decades of dominance by the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) -- two usually feuding groups that joined forces to oust him.
Khan's vision was for Pakistan to become a welfare state modelled on the Islamic golden age of the 7th to 14th centuries, a period of cultural, economic and scientific flourishing in the Muslim world.
But he made little headway in improving Pakistan's financial situation, with galloping inflation, crippling debt and a feeble rupee undermining economic reform.
The security situation also deteriorated on his watch, particularly since the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan last year.