LAHORE, April 19: Asif Zardari says he doesn’t think the MMA wants a democratic rule in the country. “I don’t think they want democracy, although they are using the platform of democracy. They are extreme in their stand because they have the capacity to commit aggression,” he said of the six-party religious alliance.

Zardari was answering reporters’ questions after participating in a meeting of the Punjab PPP executive and the CEC at the party’s Faisal Town secretariat on Tuesday.

Jehangir Badr, Qasim Zia, Ahmad Mukhtar, Altaf Qureshi, Rana Aftab, Raja Riaz, Sherry Rehman, Nawabzada Ghazanfarul Gul, Khalid Kharal, Makhdoom Shahabuddin and Naveed Chaudhry were among the participants.

Zardari said he had very good relations with MMA Secretary-General Maulana Fazlur Rehman. But, he said, the two had different points of view on various issues.

He said since Fazl had been cooperating with the PPP in the past, he hoped he would be able to bring him on his side. He said the MMA had played a vital role in what he called the burial of democracy and now it was talking of reviving it.

Asked whether he could have democracy restored without resorting to a long march, Zardari said before doing anything else he would have to make society understand his point of view.

The PPP leader said the establishment was getting weaker with the passage of time. He said the New World Order revolved around democracy because of which he could not leave this platform.

When it was pointed out that his emergence on the scene was relegating his wife, Ms Benazir, into the background, he said he could not even think of such a situation.

He said he respected the army as an institution and the elements out to break it were, in fact, trying to disintegrate the country.

He said the establishment meant a group of people which had its tentacles in all walks of life.

Asked whether his stress on a two-party system should be taken as a move for his party to part ways with the PML-N, Zardari said in politics there was no final word. However, he hastened to add that the PPP and the PML-N could work together for five years before going for a two-party system.

About the status of Gen Musharraf, he said he could not say anything against the party discipline or policy. He said the PPP would not compromise on its principles as such a course would damage its long term interests.

Zardari said he had returned to Pakistan, leaving all comforts available to him in Dubai, to be able to play his role for the cause of democracy.