Pakistan Media Says It’s Targeted in Army’s ‘Systematic, Creeping, Coup’

Critics say the military’s move ahead of a July 25 election is part of a larger power grab that seeks to ensure a pliant government emerges from the polls

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—A major Pakistani newspaper recently discovered the new limits of press freedom here after it published an interview with ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in which he questioned the military’s counterterrorism efforts.

Soldiers confiscated copies of the Dawn newspaper in army-controlled regions, officials harassed its distributors, and cable TV networks dropped the group’s TV news station, the company says. The government, then still run Mr. Sharif’s own party, “condemned the fallacious assertions” made...