ISLAMABAD, Nov 5: A PML-N leader, Syed Zafar Ali Shah, approached the Supreme Court on Tuesday with a plea that Chief Executive Gen Pervez Musharraf be asked to relinquish the office of president.

Through a petition filed under Article 184(3) of the Constitution, the former MNA informed the Supreme Court that Article 4 of the Chief Executive’s Order No 12 of 2002 was ultra vires of the Constitution and, therefore, void and without any legal authority.

He demanded of the apex court to declare the ordinances issued after Oct 10, 2002, to be without any legal authority, and restrain the federation from issuing any ordinance.

It further demanded that the government of Pakistan be directed through the ministry of law and justice to expedite elections to the Senate, and declare that the Constitution would stand revived on the day the Senate elected its chairman.

The petitioner drew a comparison between the votes cast in the Oct 10 elections and the votes cast in the April 30 referendum.

He said the Election Commission had claimed that during the referendum 2.6 million voters in Balochistan had cast their votes. In the recently concluded elections, the total votes cast for 14 national and 51 provincial assembly seats in that province was less than 1 million voters. In the NWFP, 3.8 million voters had cast their votes on April 30, whereas in the general elections only 3 million votes were cast.

He gave similar examples for Punjab and Sindh.

The petitioner said the figures showed that the referendum was all managed.