ISLAMABAD, Jan 13: The Pakistan People's Party (PPP) was ready to take some members of the Patriots group back in the party, hinted PPP Secretary-General Jahangir Badr while briefing reporters about the decisions taken at the central executive committee (CEC) meeting of the party here on Tuesday.

"Some of them can be welcomed back in the party if they apologise to Ms Benazir Bhutto, and some of them cannot be welcomed even after apology," Mr Badr said in reply to a question about the possibility of some Patriots members' rejoining the party in future. He said the final decision, however, would be taken by Ms Bhutto.

Flanked by MNA Raja Pervez Ashraf, information secretary Taj Haider and PPP foreign liaison committee member Kashif Rizvi, he said there was a procedure under which a member could rejoin the party after tendering an apology. However, he observed, all members of the Patriots had been expelled from the party and their basic membership had also been cancelled.

The PPP secretary-general said the party welcomed the initiation of peace process with India but believed that a national consensus be developed before taking any step towards resolution of the Kashmir dispute.

The party believed that the relations between India and Pakistan could be normalized without abandoning the UN resolutions on Kashmir, he said, adding that to find out a permanent solution to the issue, Kashmiri people should also be taken into confidence. The party, he said, had decided to observe Feb 5 as solidarity day with the people of Kashmir.

Mr Badr evaded a question whether there were differences within the party on the issue of Mr Ghulam Mustafa Khar's return to the fold of the party. Criticizing the role of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA), the PPP leader said the religious alliance had deceived the nation by accepting the LFO. The government, he added, wanted to have a dummy opposition in similar way as it had introduced a "dummy democracy" to prolong the personal rule of an individual.

He said the party would move a bill in parliament to check incidents of honour killings in the country. Speaking on the occasion, Raja Pervez said the party had received indications that the government wanted to appoint Maulana Fazlur Rehman as the leader of the opposition in the National Assembly.

He said the MMA had proved itself a "Mullah-Military Alliance". Every dictator, he went on to say, wanted to have a loyal opposition. The PPP leader said the real face of the MMA had been exposed before the people.