Pakistani court grants bail to ailing former PM Sharif

LAHORE, Pakistan (Reuters) - A Pakistani court granted bail on Friday to jailed former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on medical grounds, a lawyer for Sharif said.

Sharif, 69, a three-time prime minister, is serving a seven-year jail sentence after a conviction for corruption last year. He denied the charges, which he said were politically motivated.

He was taken from his jail cell to hospital in the city of Lahore on Monday and his party has raised concern about his health.

"We applied for bail on the grounds that his health conditions were deteriorating and that he needs better treatment," his lawyer, Azam Nazir Tarar, told Reuters after the ruling.

(Reporting by Mubasher Bukhari and Asif Shahzad,; Editing by Robert Birsel)