Several parameters are being set through classical forms
...
This orderby and desc fields are not
If you are sending a form to your script then the parameters in the URL are not available to CGI's param(). You need to use url_param() 
my $index = $q->url_param('orderby');

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In reply to Re^3: CGI scoping question by tangent
in thread CGI scoping question by WoodyWeaver

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