Former Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif granted bail

Muscat: Pakistan's Supreme Court granted former premier Nawaz Sharif bail on medical grounds, local media reported. His bail period is due to last six weeks and was granted in the Al Azizia Steel Mills case Sharif's bail petition was accepted by a three-judge panel led by Chief Justice Asif Saeed Khosa. According to the judgement, Sharif cannot leave the country. After the order was announced, Sharif's daughter Maryam Nawaz expressed her relief with a tweet that read, "God is merciful." His brother Shehbaz, leader of the opposition PML-N Party in the National Assembly, said, "Grateful to Allah Almighty for the acceptance of Nawaz Sharif's bail plea. May He give him health and long life! Sharif's initial petition was rejected on 25 February by an Islamabad high court, a decision that was later challenged in the supreme court. The former three time prime minister of Pakistan is serving a seven-year sentence imposed for failing to disclose the source of income that allowed him to acquire the Al-Azizia Steel Mills. The accountability court that sentenced Sharif also ordered him to pay a $2.5 million fine. Sharif served as his country's head of government from 1990-1992, and later 1997 until a coup in 1999. He was later elected for a third stint in office in 2013. He was removed from office by the Supreme Court in 2017.