LAHORE, Oct 27: MMA nominee for the prime minister’s slot Maulana Fazlur Rahman says he is ready to work with Gen Pervez Musharraf as president.

Talking to reporters here on Sunday, he said: “We will practically show that we can work together.” It was necessary to adopt a flexible approach at this time, otherwise, formation of government (by any party) would be difficult, he emphasized.

The MMA also had a balanced approach on the constitutional package introduced by the general, he said, adding that its only objection was that one person could not be empowered to amend the Constitution.

“Parliament has come into existence that will analyse which amendments are the need of the hour and will approve them and which are against the democratic spirit and will re-fashion or reject them altogether,” he emphasized.

Maulana Fazl chided law minister Dr Khalid Ranjha for complicating the issue by giving daily statements. “We are going towards compromise but he is steering the process towards deadlock.”

Warning that any government formed without the MMA would not last long, he said they were more closer to the PML-Q as compared with the PPP on the issue of government formation.

He said a stable government could be formed only if the PML-Q joined hands with the PPP or the MMA, while the option of the League coming into power with the help of smaller parliamentary groups or the PPP and the MMA joining hands for the purpose would result in weaker governments.

He said it would become clear in few days that which party would form its government.

He stressed the need for giving the MMA a chance to rule the country so that the hesitancy found in the religious forces and the West could be eliminated.

“The MMA has brought the elements considered extremist towards the democratic struggle and if the MMA was denied to rule the country these elements will return to extremism,” he said.

The religious forces had got mandate from smaller provinces and pushing them back would amount to encouraging provincialism, he further argued.

Rejecting the fears of the West that Pakistan would be cut off from the rest of the world if it came under the MMA rule, Maulana Fazl said the alliance would follow a balanced foreign policy fashioned by the local people and not an imported one.

About the US bases and the presence of FBI personnel in the country, he said Pakistan did not need foreign support to maintain law and order.

Maulana Fazl criticized PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto for holding a joint press conference along with former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak. “This will cause her a damage as the people of Pakistan will lose their confidence in her,” he said. However, he said they would not suspend talks with PPP president Makhdoom Amin Fahim on the issue of government formation issue due to it.

About the hostage-taking in Moscow, he said the situation was not clear. He feared that it might be a reactionary step of the Chechens who had been denied to rule their country.

Answering a question, he said the MMA had briefed foreign ambassadors in Islamabad only to counter the impression created by the world media against the religious forces. “It was aimed at presenting our views before the world and discarding the misunderstandings being created about us,” he said.

MMA information secretary Pir Ijaz Hashmi, JUI deputy general secretary Hafiz Husain Ahmad and information secretary Riaz Durrani were also present.