Problem solved! Another perl monk was able to help. It turns out the links were the problem. Here is the code that worked:

# page links
my $pagelinks;
 
if ($reqpage > 1){
  my $prev_page = $reqpage - 1;
  $pagelinks .= qq! <a href="?reqpage=$prev_page"> Previous </a> !;
}    
    
for my $pageno (1..$pagecount){
  if ($pageno == $reqpage){
    $pagelinks .= qq! <strong>$pageno</strong>!;
  } else {
    $pagelinks .= qq! <a href="?reqpage=$pageno"> $pageno </a> !;     
  }
}
    
if ($reqpage < $pagecount){
  my $next_page = $reqpage + 1;
  $pagelinks .= qq! <a href="?reqpage=$next_page"> Next </a> !;
}
[download]

Thanks for your input. Much appreciated