Gerakan will support Parti Bersatu Sabah's re-entry into the ruling Barisan Nasional if it is sincere about national interest and development, party president Dr Lim Keng Yaik said today.

"If PBS is sincere (about rejoining the ruling coalition), we will support them," Lim said after chairing the party central committee meeting at the Gerakan headquarters in Kuala Lumpur.

However, secretary-general Chia Kwang Chy told malaysiakini that the party has yet to receive any notice for a BN council meeting to decide on the PBS application.

Yesterday, BN chairman and Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad was reported as saying that he was satisfied with PBS' explanation for pulling out of the coalition on the eve of the 1990 general elections but he would seek a consensus from BN component parties for its re-entry.

After withdrawing from BN, the Kadazandusun-based party joined the then opposition front led by the now defunct Semangat 46.

On Thursday, PBS president Joseph Pairin Kitingan and vice-president Dr Maximus Johnity Ongkili handed over the party's unconditional application to Mahathir.

The premier who had once said he would never accept the party back told reporters after a meeting with PBS that "it will not be nice for BN to reject them" since Pairin had apologised for his mistakes and regrets what happened 11 years ago.

Vacate seats

Meanwhile, DAP national deputy chairperson Karpal Singh described Pairin's act of apologising to the premier as "pathetic".

"The PBS president is certainly not setting leadership by example when he wanted to return to the BN in such a shabby state," he said in a statement.

Karpal also urged all PBS state assembly members and members of parliament to vacate their seats since they were elected in the last elections on opposition tickets.

"All of them have no moral right to continue holding on to their seats," he said.

PBS currently has 17 members in the Sabah state assembly and three members of parliament.

Since its inception in 1985, the party had won the state elections for four successive terms.In 1994, PBS won 25 seats while BN took 23. But PBS lost its majority within two weeks after several of its members joined BN parties.

The ruling coalition has since formed the state government and practises a rotation system for the Sabah chief minister's post among its component parties there.