LAHORE, May 5: The People's Party Parliamentarians (PPP) has decided to challenge the vote of confidence taken by President Gen Pervez Musharraf from Senate, the national and the four provincial assemblies as president of the country in January last.

A petition will be filed in the Lahore High Court on Thursday immediately after giving details of the case at a Press conference at the Opposition leader's chamber in the Punjab Assembly, sources in the party said.

Punjab PPP chief Qasim Zia along with advocate Babar Awan would speak at the news conference. The sources claimed that the legal cell of the party had found "some lacunas" in the vote of confidence process.

The idea, they said, had been discussed and approved by PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto during a visit of Mr Zia to Dubai last week. No other party leader will be taken into confidence on the issue before the filing of the petition.

Even members of the parliamentary party were kept in the dark about the development though they discussed various internal issues of the PPP at a meeting here on Wednesday.

The parliamentary party earlier played down reports of the likely return of PML-N leader Shahbaz Sharif. The participants discussed the issue only for a couple of minutes, observing that "since the PML-N leadership is seemed to be confused on the issue, there was no need to motivate PPP workers for the welcome of Mr Sharif."