Court summons Shahbaz Sharif's wife

A high court judge in the Pakistani city of Lahore has ordered that Nusrat Shahbaz Sharif be produced before the court on Tuesday, along with her two sons and two daughters.

She is the wife of the exiled Pakistani politician Shabaz Sharif - the brother of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif.

This follows a petition filed on Saturday by the Sharif family's lawyer, Ashtar Ausaf Ali, alleging that the police had laid siege to their home.

He accused the authorities of planning to deport Mrs Sharif.

From the government's side, the advocate-general of the Punjab province, Shabbar Raza, denied that Mrs Sharif or any of her children were in detention.

Mr Shabaz Sharif and his brother Nawaz Sharif were exiled to Saudi Arabia along with their families, in December 2000, as part of a deal between the Saudi authorities and Pakistan's military government.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service