The Lahore High Court has asked the Pakistan government to inform it under what authority of law deposed premier Nawaz Sharif had been sent into exile. Justice Malik Muhammad Qayyum, hearing a writ petition challenging 'the deal' under which Sharif was taken out of jail and allowed to proceed to Saudi Arabia, observed that the provisions did not allow deportation or exile of a convicted prisoner. Deputy Attorney-General Khwaja Saeeduz Zafar replied in the negative when the judge asked him whether he had obtained instructions from the federal government. He was asked to seek instructions and place them before the court on January 31. Arguing his petition earlier, Advocate M D Tahir said that even pardon cannot be granted arbitrarily. While the period for filing an appeal against the Sindh High Court judgment in the plane hijacking case had not expired, the accountability court verdict against Sharif had become final, Tahir argued. He said that the president can grant reprieve after the law and legal process have taken their course. During his four-year stint as president, the lawyer claimed, the president had rejected 2,000 mercy petitions, many by deserving convicts who were the sole bread earners of their family or the only sons of their parents. The president accepted only two mercy petitions, one on the recommendation of Sharif and the other by him. He requested the court to order production of the details of the deal. Bureau Report