Understood to be detained in Rawalpindi by the Army authorities, Sharif is not permitted contact with the outside world, is barred from television and newspapers and lives on rations prepared at an Army mess. Of late, there is also confusion over where Sharif actually is, with speculation that he has already been shifted to Karachi.

His family also accuses his military captors of mistreating him. In one of the rare occasions that Sharif was allowed to talk to his family last week, he complained that he was not being treated well. While the former PM appears to be in good physical shape, as attested by the Malaysian and Canadian envoys that met him earlier last week, there are charges that he is not being given the facilities that are due to him. Sharif's wife, Kulsoom, saysthat her husband has been tortured to extract information from him about his business interests. She demands that she be allowed to meet him. A letter from Kulsoom Nawaz to the Supreme Court has been turned into a petition and hearing on this will commence on November 18.

It is understood that Kulsoom may be allowed to meet her husband within a month or so by the Army authorities. While younger brother Shahbaz Sharif was ``lightly slapped'' by Armymen when they came to arrest him, there are no reports that the former PM was manhandled when he was taken into custody.

While this may be the case, his stay in Army custody has not been a comfortable one. Eyewitness accounts, quoted in local papers, say that Sharif has been running a temperature and also appears to be drowsy when presented before his interrogators. What is more important right now for Sharif is how the Government handles charges against him of kidnapping, hijacking and treason that carry the death sentence. Sharif is expected to be formallycharged shortly, after which his case will go to the dreaded anti-terrorism court, which Sharif himself had set up to combat growing terrorism and crime in the country. The ATCs, as they are called, are one step less restrictive than the military court set up by Sharif last year but which had to be disbanded in the face of a judgment of the Supreme Court that these courts were in contradiction to the legal system.

The judiciary also has its reservations over the ATCs, which also deliver justice within a short period of time as against the conventional judicial system. But the fact that these courts are presided over by a member of the legal fraternity has won them acceptance by the judiciary.

Legal experts say that as things stand, Sharif is in deep trouble with the charge of hijacking instilled against him.

``It is on the basis of this that the case has been referred to the ATC as this is a serious terrorist offence,'' says a Karachi lawyer.The maximum punishment under charge is death, although inserious terrorism cases the punishment is reverted to life imprisonment, a prospect that Sharif will not find too pleasurable.

While the Army authorities are trying to make changes in the ATC law to shorten the time frame for the case to be processed, as things stand, a case can be finalised within 10 days after an accused is formally charged. As of Tuesday, Sharif has not been charged, although his co-accused were charged at an ATC in Karachi on Monday.