ISLAMABAD, Nov 12: President Gen Pervez Musharraf has said extremism and terrorism pose serious threat to the country which needed to be checked urgently to avoid problems.

“We will suffer if we do not check both these menaces in time,” he warned.

Addressing a convention of district and tehsil nazims here on Saturday, the president sought support of public representatives to get rid of the malaise of extremism.

“The nation today faces no external threat but an internal danger in the form of religious extremism and sectarianism,” he said and declared Pakistan’s firm resolve to fight terrorism.

He also called for reactivating reconciliation courts to not only lessen the burden on civil courts but also to provide prompt assistance to people in family matters.

He said reconciliation courts were perhaps the only answer to removing a huge burden on the judiciary and ensuring speedy justice.

The president said the local government system had empowered women “who constitute half of the country’s population” and urged Nazimeen to make efforts to contain honour killings and violence against women. “These are social evils which also go against Islam.”

He stressed for addressing these problems and asked public representatives to stand by women victims.

The president said the amendments made to the local government ordinance will go a long way to further strengthening the grass-root level democracy, harmonizing different tiers of the government and bringing about fast-track development and prosperity for the people.

He said the amendments were designed to remove shortcomings in the grassroots level democracy and strengthen and harmonize various tiers of the local government.

The president said with the successful introduction of grass-root democracy, “we have done away with the colonial system, a system in which people were not empowered”.

He said the local government system successfully completed its four-year term.