Pakistan's Punjab province government suspends Nawaz Sharif's seven-year sentence in Al-Azizia case
Nawaz Sharif, the caretaker government of Pakistan's Punjab province on Tuesday suspended his seven-year sentence in the Al-Azizia corruption case. The Punjab caretaker government led by Chief Minister Mohsin Naqvi is considered an extension of the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz government.
The government's decision came at the time when 73-year-old Sharif was appearing before the Islamabad High Court on Tuesday to seek bail in the Al-Azizia case.
Before his arrival to Pakistan after ending his four-year self-imposed exile last Saturday, the IHC had granted him protective bail till October 24.
On Tuesday, the Punjab government issued a statement saying that it has suspended PML-N supremo Sharif's sentence in the Al-Azizia case on his request.
«The former prime minister's sentence has been suspended after the provincial cabinet's approval. The decision has been taken in the light of a higher court that allowed the Punjab government to suspend Nawaz's conviction in the Al-Azizia case on medical grounds,» the government said.
Nawaz Sharif appears before court, gets bails in Toshakhana case
Sharif was convicted in the Al-Azizia Steel Mills corruption case and sentenced to seven years in jail in December 2018. Delivering the verdict, the judge had said that there was concrete evidence against the former premier in the Al-Azizia case, and that he was unable to give the trail of the money used to set up the Al-Azizia steel mills in Saudi Arabia by his family in 2001 and later on the Hill Metal Establishment also in Saudi Arabia.
He was allowed to go to London in November 2019 on medical grounds and he returned about four years later on Saturday.
He was also convicted in the Avenfield case in 2018. In
