Former PM Sharif granted bail for medical treatment

ISlamabad: The Pakistani Supreme Court granted six-week bail to former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, temporarily suspending his seven-year prison term for failing to disclose the source of income that allowed him to acquire the Al-Azizia Steel Mills in Saudi Arabia. He has appealed.

Sharif will be free to get treatment anywhere in the country but will not be allowed to leave Pakistan, the court said.

Sharif would be expected to surrender voluntarily at the end of the bail term.

The former leader was convicted of corruption in December by an anti-graft tribunal.

Sharif, 69, has a history of diabetes and had medical procedures on his heart at a clinic in London more than two years ago.

He sought bail on the grounds of deteriorating health.

The Islamabad High Court had rejected the bail appeal last month.

The decision was then challenged in the Supreme Court.

This won’t be the first time Sharif has received medical attention.

Since his December conviction, he has been let out on bail on several occasions for treatment in the eastern city of Lahore.

Sharif, a three-time premier who was removed by the Supreme Court in 2017, was not present in the courtroom at the time of announcement. He and his children – two sons and a daughter – were charged with three counts of corruption during his two periods in power in the 1990s.

His daughter Maryam has accused Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf party of mistreating her father, a charge the government denies. The issue has been the subject of bitter wrangling for weeks.

Sharif, known as an advocate for civilian supremacy in a country marred by years of violence by militants and political upheavals, has rough relations with the military and the judiciary.

All three of his terms in power ended prematurely, once through a direct military coup. — dpa/ Reuters