ISLAMABAD, March 14: Pakistan Muslim League-N has threatened to file a petition against Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Justice (retired) Irshad Hassan Khan with the Lahore High Court if he does not take action on a reference filed by the party to unseat Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi.

Speaking at a news conference here on Sunday, PML-N Information Secretary Siddiqul Farooque regretted that the CEC had not taken any action on the reference filed by him several months ago against the Chaudhrys of Gujrat for "being loan defaulters and presenting wrong declarations at the time of elections".

Mr Farooque said he had sent another letter to the CEC reminding him of his constitutional obligations and asking him to take action on the reference filed in September 2003.

In the letter, a copy of which was made available to Dawn, Mr Farooque had drawn the CEC's attention to the "defaulters", who had deceived the nation by presenting "wrong information" to the election officers and deliberately withholding facts.

He alleged that PML-Q chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi had acquired loans worth Rs246 million from Bankers Equity Limited (BEL) and National Bank of Pakistan and "used their influence to get the loans written off".

He said the National Bank had already put the record of the written-off loans before the National Assembly. "Both of them, therefore, were not qualified to contest elections under Chief Executive's Order No. 7 (O & Q) 2002, Conduct of Election Rules 2002 clause 8-D(2) and Article 12(2)(c) of People's Representation Act LXXXV 1976." However, they ran for the national and provincial assemblies elections from Gujrat, Rahim Yar Khan and Bhakkar.

He alleged that the Chaudhrys had "wilfully and with malafide intentions hid the facts about their loan defaults in their affidavits presented to the returning officers concerned" and thus not only deprived the voters of respective constituencies of genuine representation but also deceived the nation.

Mr Farooque writes to the CEC: "I had requested you on September 20, 2003 as a Pakistani citizen and spokesman/media adviser of the PML-N to please look into this matter and prove the impartiality and transparency of your institution by declaring Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi defaulters, take punitive action against them, recover the amounts owed to them and cancel their membership of National and provincial assemblies."