WASHINGTON, June 27: President Pervez Musharraf has said that the political situation in Pakistan does not call for any drastic action against the parliament or the elected government.

The president, who was talking to the Pakistani media on the last day of his three-day official visit to Washington, also defended his decision to work with some politicians who were “not totally clean,” because “this is what is available in the country.”

During the current visit, Gen Musharraf said, the US administration never brought up the issue of democracy in Pakistan. Pakistani internal politics, he said, were not discussed at Camp David either.

“The political situation in Pakistan does not call for drastic action such as dissolving the assemblies or packing up the government. A simple majority is needed for the smooth functioning of the government, which the government already enjoys,” the president said.

“A simple majority is also needed for legislation, although the constitution cannot be amended without a two-thirds majority,” he added.

Ideally, he said, it would have been good for the country if the government had a two-thirds majority, “new laws were made and new thoughts had emerged.”

“But the system is operative and the government is being run democratically and, therefore, there’s no threat to the system.”

“The disturbing sign is the bickering between the government and the opposition but it does not call for a drastic action,” said the president.

When a journalist, referred to allegedly corrupt politicians in government, the president said: “The whole of Pakistan is my company (and not just a few politicians as the questioner implied). There’s no absolute honesty in Pakistan. There’s much dishonesty and corruption ... many imperfections ... you got to work with the people you have.”

The political reality in Pakistan, he said, was that the people labelled as corrupt by the media “are elected with huge majorities ... they have dozens of MNAs with them. So you have to make compromises and if the compromise is done in the national interest, it is not wrong.”

Gen Musharraf said that the opposition’s demand for him to take off his uniform was unjustified. A two-thirds majority in the Punjab assembly, he said, had urged him to keep his uniform. A majority of the National Assembly had voted for the LFO and declared that to be a part of the Constitution. “Now, how can they ask me to take off my uniform? In a democracy, it is the majority that takes decisions, not the minority.”

In an indirect reference to the religious parties campaigning against him, the president said: “The dispute is no more about the uniform or democracy. It is about the choice between Talibanization and building a prosperous and progressive Pakistan, which is respected by the international community.”

“No deals are being struck in Washington,” Gen Musharraf said. “Every country has its own national interest to look after. The United States has its own national interest and we have our own. But the beauty of our relationship with the United States is that we have common interests.”

Asked if during the current visit, the Americans had asked him to recognize Israel, the president said they had not. “But we must review our Israel policy to make sure that it suits our national interests. We fight wars with India but our passport says ‘valid for all countries in the world except Israel.’ The Arabs are making deals with Israel. The Palestinians are dealing with them. But this subject is taboo in Pakistan. Why? We need to ask ourselves.”

The president said he was not suggesting that Pakistan was going to recognize Israel now but there’s need “for a debate, for developing a national consensus on this issue and for adopting a policy that suits our national interests.”

President Musharraf said that it was wrong to assume that Pakistan was ‘short-changed’ in the economic package President Bush announced at Camp David on Tuesday. The $3 billion package, he said, was a grant, not a loan and this was in addition to the assistance Pakistan was already receiving from the US.

He said comparing this aid package to the ones granted to Egypt or Turkey was wrong. He said he had probed these questions and found that countries like Turkey were getting much less than what was suggested by the media.

The president said the government will have to build Bhasha and Kalabagh dams within the next 15 years to meet its irrigation requirements. Meanwhile, he said, smaller dams will also have to be built to facilitate agriculture.

He said it was not proper for the Sindh assembly to vote against a project in another province. “Would Sindh stop any of its projects if the Punjab assembly makes a similar demand?” he asked.

The president rejected the suggestion that Gen. Tauqeer Zia had destroyed cricket in Pakistan. “Gen. Tauqeer Zia is doing a wonderful job and there’s no reason for me to ask for his resignation,” he said.