Extensive media reports yesterday said rebel faction of lawmakers in the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League (PML) had vowed to oppose the controversial Islamic bill. Today's statement sought to play down intra-party opposition to the bill.

No member has resigned, a PML spokesman said reacting to reports in a section of the press.

But two leading dailies -- the largest circulated urdu daily, Jang, and the English daily, The News -- stood by their stories and carried further comments by rebel members of parliament against the proposed bill.

The reports further said the government's move to defer passage of the bill till after Sharif's New York trip to attend the 53rd GeneralAssembly session was indicative of a revolt in the PML ranks.

Sharif has also ordered monitoring of activities of all ruling party lawmakers and issued directives to them to give suggestions on the bill to minister of religious affairs, Raja Zafarul Haq, the news claimed.

The paper quoted a rebel member as saying these proposals and suggestions should have been sought before framing and introduction of the bill.``Though belated, I think Sharif has moved in the right direction but not before PML leaders threatened to stage a revolt which has taken away the smile from Sharif's face,'' he was quoted as saying. Earlier reports said a senior national assembly member of PML, Khurshid Kasuri, strongly opposed the bill during a parliamentary party meeting on Thursday and even threw his resignation letter at Sharif leading to a mini-revolt within the party with at least 30 more MPs threatening to resign.

Some other senior party leaders intervened to avert an immiment split in the party. Meanwhile, Irfan Beg, 30,an activist of former premier Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP), was killed in central Liaquatbad area after being kidnapped, they said.

Police said they suspected a political motive behind the killing.Police found the bullet-riddled body of a young man in central sharifabad area, while another man was killed elsewhere in the city.

Most of the victims are supporters of the MQM and its splinter MQM-Haqiqi faction. The main MQM blames intelligence agencies and its rival faction for the killings. Government officials and the MQM-Haqiqi deny the charge.

SPOT ASSESSMENT: Agencies say that according to reports in Washington Times Pakistan was training and arming militants, including Afghans and Pakistanis, to fight a proxy war in Kashmir.

``Muslim rebels have been trained and armed in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Many are Pakistanis recruited to fight against Indians. Some are Arabs who fought in the Afghan war against the Soviets,'' the report said.

In a report filed after an on-the-spotassessment of the situation on the Kashmir border, the Times correspondent said these militants continue to fight a bloody war that involves ``assassinating suspected collaborators and ambushes of Indian patrols'' in Kashmir.

It pointed out that ``the recent US missile strike on terrorist camps in Afghanistan to retaliate for bombings of US embassies in Africa ended up killing dozens of Pakistanis training to fight in Kashmir.''