14 May 2004	Friday	23 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1425

LAHORE, May 13: Punjab Assembly Leader of the Opposition Qasim Zia's petition against the election of President Gen Pervez Musharraf is missing from the Lahore High Court registrar office.

Dr Babar Awan, counsel for Mr Zia, told reporters here on Thursday that the petition was filed with the high court and recorded by the office in its diary on May 6. The petition was supposed to have been fixed for hearing on Thursday, but when he contacted the office in the morning, he was told that it had gone missing.

The counsel has written to the LHC registrar office that the petition be located and fixed for hearing on May 20. The petitioner has requested the Lahore High Court that the vote of confidence secured by the president be declared illegal and unconstitutional and the office of the president vacant.

The petition took a position that Gen Pervez Musharraf failed to poll the required number of votes from the Punjab, NWFP and Balochistan assemblies and thus did not qualify to represent people as the head of state.

The petitioner submitted that the chief election commissioner, held as a respondent along with the speaker of Punjab Assembly and the returning and presiding officers appointed for securing a vote of confidence on Jan 1, 2004, converted the electoral exercise for the vote of confidence into election for the office of the president in an unconstitutional manner.

He also submitted that rules framed for the vote of confidence were communicated to the presiding officers of the NWFP Assembly after the resolution for vote of confidence. The resolution was neither sent to the presiding officer of the Punjab Assembly nor division of the electorate sought.

Also mentioned in the petition was that presiding officers for the vote of confidence were judges of the superior courts whereas the law provided that a member of the provincial assembly concerned should be in the chair for the electoral exercise.