Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has resigned from his post, hours after the country's Supreme Court disqualified him over corruption claims against his family.
The Supreme Court said Mr Sharif is not fit to hold office and ordered a criminal investigation into him and his family.
The court dismissed Mr Sharif after an investigative panel alleged his family could not account for its vast wealth.
The prime minister's office said in a statement that Mr Sharif has "stepped down" despite having "serious reservations" about the judicial process. The move cuts short his third stint in power.
"He is no more eligible to be an honest member of the parliament, and he ceases to be holding the office of prime minister," Judge Ejaz Afzal Khan said in court.
No Pakistani prime minister has ever completed a full five-year term.
Most have seen their tenures cut short by the powerful military or interference from the Supreme Court.
Others have been ousted by their own party, forced to resign - or been assassinated.
It is the second time in Pakistan's 70-year history that the Supreme Court has disqualified a sitting prime minister.
In 2012 then-prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani was disqualified over contempt of court charges for refusing to reopen a corruption case against the sitting president Asif Ali Zardari.
The Supreme Court's unceremonious end to Mr Sharif's tenure represents a record third time he has been ousted as leader before completing his term.
In 1993 he was sacked by the then-president over graft allegations, while in 1999 he was ousted in a military coup.
