Islamabad: As the deadlock continued over the formation of a new government, former Premier Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-N has filed a petition in the Supreme Court challenging Pervez Musharraf's Presidency.

A senior PML-N leader, Syed Zafar Ali Shah, filed a petition on November 5 asking the apex court to direct Musharraf to quit, as the three-year deadline set for him to relinquish powers to an elected government has ended.

It was another petition by Shah in 2000 that prompted the apex court to legalise Musharraf's 1999 military coup and fix a three-year deadline for him to hold the elections and hand over power to an elected government.

In his petition, Shah has urged the Chief Justice of Pakistan to take over the office of President, as the term of Musharraf as chief executive expired on October 11, 2002 as per the court judgement of 2000.

Shah has asked the court to "direct President Pervez Musharraf to relinquish the office of President, which should be held by the Chief Justice of Pakistan until it is filled in accordance with the Constitution".

The petitioner also questioned the constitutionality of the "fictitious" referendum held by Musharraf in April to get himself elected for five years.

The Supreme Court, in the run-up to the referendum, had upheld it under the framework of the Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO) promulgated by Musharraf, but said the PCO would go after the restoration of the Constitution.

The court judgement in April however left open the legality of referendum after the restoration of Constitution.

Referring to the legality of the referendum after the polls, the court in its judgements said, "Apparently these questions are purely academic, hypothetical and presumptive in nature and are not capable of being determined at this juncture."

"We would not like to go into these questions at this stage, and leave the same to be determined at a proper forum (Parliament) at the appropriate time," it added.

PTI