LAHORE. May 10: The fixing of two writ petitions by Mian Shahbaz Sharif and his wife Nusrat Shahbaz before a bench of the Lahore High Court took several dramatic turns on Monday which were punctuated by the intervention of senior lawyers like Abdul Hafeez Pirzada, the counsel for the two petitioners.

The controversy was resolved just before the closing hour when the counsel and others were informed that the petitions had been brought on record and might be listed for hearing on Tuesday (Tuesday).

However, the uncertainty still loomed large on the fate of the petitions because it was not clear if the registrar office had raised any objection to their maintainability.

The petitions were filed on May 7 with a request placed before the high court that the Punjab government should be directed not to deport the former chief minister and his wife as and when they arrived in Pakistan.

The confusion arose when Pirzada's junior advocate Feroze Jamal Shah and Barrister Mohammad Ahmad Qayyum, also a counsel in the case, were reportedly told that the court had received no such petitions and that they might have been lost.

The matter was reported to Mr Pirzada who reportedly told the office that they would have to face criminal charges if the petitions were not found. The office then, after about an hour or so, told the counsel that the petitions had been located. They blamed the counsel staff for dropping the petitions in a 'wrong box.'

The counsel's problem was not yet over as Barrister Mohammad and advocate Feroze were kept on waiting for hours for the information if the petitions were to be heard on Monday as they had been insisting throughout the day on the ground that since the petitioners (Shahbaz Sharif and his wife) were expected to arrive on Tuesday, proceedings should take place today (Monday).

They were asked to wait till 11.30am and were informed at about 1.40pm that the petitions had been put into the court diary and might be taken up on Tuesday.

Mian Shahbaz Sharif and Nusrat Shahbaz have apprehended in their petitions that the government would deport them to another country as and when they arrived in Pakistan.

Citing a Supreme Court decision on Shahbaz Sharif's petition last month that he could not be deported because he, as a citizen of Pakistan, had a right to return to his home country. The petitioners had requested the Lahore High Court to issue a directive to the Punjab government not to deport them on reaching Pakistan.