KARACHI, Sept 3: President Gen Pervez Musharraf has said that as the world is passing through a 'tumultuous period' his two- pronged strategy of "enlightened moderation" was aimed at shunning militancy by the Muslims and adopting the road to progress and development.

He spelt this out in a message read out at the inaugural session of international conference here on "Muslim Ummah in the Modern World: Challenges and Opportunities."

In his message, which was read out by Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad, the president appreciated the initiative taken by the Hamdard Foundation which has sponsored the conference, and said: "The world is passing through a tumultuous period ever since the dawn of the 90s, with no signs of relenting.

The emerging problems have led me to propose a strategy that I have termed as 'Enlightened Moderation.' "This strategy is two-pronged. One prong is to be 'delivered by the Muslim world by shunning militancy,' extremism and adopting the path of socio-economic uplift.

"The other prong, to be delivered by the West and the US in particular, must aim at resolving all political disputes with justice and also assisting in the socio-economic uplift of the deprived Muslim world", he said.

President Musharraf said that towards this end, Pakistan had proposed further strengthening of the OIC and maintained that the Committee of Eminent Persons being formed to recommend a restructured OIC was an important step towards this direction.

"This conference being held as an independent follow-up is very important as it would be bringing together a group of eminent scholars and professionals to analyse the challenges in detail and highlight the opportunities for specific future action," he stressed.