Islamabad, July 17 : Expressing satisfaction over the Supreme Court’s verdict acquitting him in the plane hijacking case, former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has said he is grateful to the ‘almighty Allah’ for the decision.

“Allah has determined the truth and now I would work day night for serving the people of Pakistan,” Sharif said minutes after the apex court declared the Sindh High Court’s
(SHC) earlier verdict as null and void.

A five-member Supreme Court bench acquitted Sharif on Friday, and declared the high court’s life imprisonment verdict against the PML-N chief as invalid, The News reports.

Sharif, as a deposed Prime Minister, was convicted on a charge of hijacking by the court after he ordered that an aircraft bringing the then Chief of Army Staff, General Pervez Musharraf from Sri Lanka, should not be allowed to land in Karachi.

He was subsequently dismissed and given a life sentence which was commuted after he agreed to go into exile in Saudi Arabia.

Sharif was also disqualified from contesting elections because of his conviction in the plane hijacking case, but later the Supreme Court quashed the verdict, and declared him eligible for contesting elections. (ANI)