[frink@truth ~/code/perl]$perl 386513.pl number=4
param: 4
Command line reporter
Called with 1
parameters which was
1: number=4
*
*
*
*
[frink@truth ~/code/perl]$perl 386513.pl-exec 
param: 4
Command line reporter
Called with 1
parameters which was
1: number=4
*
*
*
*
[frink@truth ~/code/perl]$cat 386513.pl-exec
#!/usr/bin/perl

exec '/usr/bin/perl', '-T', '386513.pl', 'number=4' or
 die "Cannot execute : $!";

[frink@truth ~/code/perl]$perl -v

This is perl, v5.8.0 built for i486-linux