LONDON, March 29: The leader of the opposition in the National Assembly, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, who is also secretary-general of the MMA, on Wednesday offered to withdraw his alliance from Balochistan coalition government if opposition parties in the provincial assembly agreed to enter into coalition with the MMA to form the next provincial government.

Speaking at a joint press conference here along with former prime minister Nawaz Sharif at the PML-N’s international headquarters, Maulana Fazl said if his party withdrew from the Balochistan coalition government as was being demanded by many quarters without reaching prior understanding with the provincial opposition to form the next government, President Gen Pervez Musharraf would impose governor’s rule and govern the province directly from Islamabad which he thought would further damage democracy.

Maulana Fazl, who earlier had a two-hour meeting with Mr Sharif, defended the MMA decision to join the coalition government with the ruling PML in Balochistan.

“It was because of the MMA’s presence in the provincial government that the chief minister had failed to get a resolution passed in support of the uniform from the Balochistan Assembly,” he said.

Answering a question, he said he had come all the way to London to take up with Mr Sharif the matter of persuading the PPP to rise above its ideological fixations, join the ranks of the opposition in a grand alliance and play its rightful role.

“It is improper for a big party like the PPP to go on a solo flight under the obtaining circumstances,” he declared.

He said it was also wrong for Benazir Bhutto to look towards America while Washington was extending all its support to a military dictator in Pakistan.

Replying to another question, he said recent statements of Ms Bhutto refusing to sit on the same platform with the MMA had come as a shock for him because he recalled that in the last four years the MMA and the PPP had held a number of joint rallies and public meetings, “even on March 26 the MMA was right there with the PPP on the streets protesting against Musharraf’s attack on the judiciary.”

When asked for his comments on a recent attack by non-state actors in a town of the NWFP and the kidnapping of policemen by girl students of a madressah in Islamabad who had already taken over a mosque, the MMA leader said he was against such trends.

“Such incidents damaged our cause. We have adopted a balanced approach to such issues as opposed to the approach of the USA and the Western world. We want to defeat these elements through logic and political process.”

Earlier, Mr Sharif welcomed the Maulana and requested him to brief the press on their just concluded meeting.

Answering a question on Benazir’s position on the proposed multi-party conference after her latest meeting with him, Mr Sharif said the PPP chairperson still maintained her original position on the issue and had reservations about forming a grand opposition alliance.

But he hoped that she would finally come around to his way of thinking on the issue.

In his opening remarks, the JUI leader called upon all political parties to rise above their party positions and ideologies and join hands in a grand opposition alliance in the supreme interest of the nation and the country.