The removal of Nawaz Sharif from the office of Prime Minister through a Supreme Court ruling is being seen by experts as a shot in the arm for the judiciary-military nexus in Pakistan.


Sharif's ouster came under intense scrutiny at a seminar 'Withered Democracy in Pakistan -- The Role of the Deep State' held in London recently.


The seminar saw academicians from Britain and the United States of America get together to discuss the evolution of politics, the role of armed forces, democracy and judiciary in Pakistan.


The seminar was organised by Democracy Forum at Senate House.Farzana Shaikh, a Pakistani-origin fellow at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, described the country as a "bonsai democracy" or a state restricted by its environment.


She said, "And yet the emergence in the last decade to competing institutional forces in Pakistan that have sought to muzzle in on space once thought to be exclusively to preserve the so-called deep state has arguably made business of conspiring against democracy far more challenging than at any time in the past".