DAP today denied PAS claims that its directive, asking its 16 members in Kelantan and Terengganu to quit government posts, was "harsh".

Party deputy chairman Karpal Singh was quoted by Bernama as saying that DAP was bound by principle, to uphold its stand against PAS' Islamic state proposal .

"The Kelantan and Terengganu state governments should safeguard the interests of non-Muslims there. It is their duty to do so," he said.

Ng Chai Heng, special assistant to Abdul Hadi Awang, five municipal and district councillors, 12 members of People's Consultative Council in Terengganu, and one village chief in Kelantan were affected by the DAP directive.

The directive was issued after the party's central executive committee meeting on Thursday.

DAP secretary-general Kerk Kim Hock told malaysiakini this evening that the continued appointment of DAP representatives in the two PAS state governments "had become untenable with the Islamic state objective".

Decision by Pahang DAP

On a separate issue, the DAP central committee also decided to dissolve its Triang branch committee due to "internal problems within the branch".

This, stressed Kerk, was not due to disagreement between top party and branch leaders over its continued relationship with former allies in BA.

He said the decision over Triang was made based on recommendations from the Pahang state committee earlier this month - central leaders had merely giving their stamp of approval to the state resolution.

While he declined to specify what those 'problems' were, he did say that various efforts have been made in the past few months by central leaders to reconcile the internal problems of the branch committee, but to no avail.

Party leaders in the end reached the decision to dissolve, as that was seen as the most amicable solution to the long standing dispute.