What next for Imran Khan, Pakistan’s ousted leader?

On Sunday, Imran Khan became the first prime minister in Pakistan’s history to be ousted by a no-confidence vote. Followers of Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party naturally took to the streets; much of their anger has been directed at the generals who engineered their leader’s downfall.

It was a clash with the all-powerful military that, like so many of his predecessors, finally ended Khan’s prime ministership. The former cricketer had attempted to oust one of the country’s all-powerful spy chiefs, a move that finally ended the uneasy relationship between the PM and the military. Attempting to save his own politician skin, Khan tried to block a no-confidence vote by dissolving the assembly last week but this was deemed illegal by the Supreme Court. Now his supporters, mainly the conservative, urban middle-classes, are outraged. It seems unlikely that they will be able to change the outcome of the military machinations. Opposition leader Shahbaz Sharif is to take his place, a more pliant figure in the eyes of the generals and a member of the PML-N, which has ruled Pakistan alongside the PPP for half of the country’s history, with the other half spent under military rule.

Few in the West will be unhappy to see Khan go: his rages against American imperialism and cosying up to Islamism made him an unstable regional actor.