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Pakistani Ex-PM Sharif Granted Bail On Medical Grounds


Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif leaves the Supreme Court building in Islamabad on December 4, 2018.
Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif leaves the Supreme Court building in Islamabad on December 4, 2018.

ISLAMABAD -- Pakistan's Supreme Court has granted bail for six weeks to former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who had been sentenced to seven years in prison for corruption.

Sharif, 69, will be free to get treatment anywhere in Pakistan but will not be allowed to leave the country, a three-judge panel ruled on March 26.

The three-time former prime minister has been suffering from a heart condition and kidney problems.

Last month, the Islamabad High Court rejected Sharif's bail appeal, saying that he was already being treated at a hospital.

That decision was later challenged in the Supreme Court.

Sharif was removed from office in 2017 after the Supreme Court disqualified him from serving.

In December, an anticorruption court sentenced him to seven years in prison on a charge of possessing assets beyond his known sources of income.

Sharif was also handed a 10-year prison sentence in July over the purchase of luxury apartments in London. However, he was released on bail in September.

The appeal process in both cases is under way.

Sharif has denied any wrongdoing and says the charges against him are politically motivated.

With reporting by dpa and Reuters

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