ISLAMABAD, Oct 27: President General Pervez Musharraf has said that Pakistan is well on course to sustainable democracy with a participatory democratic system functioning at the grass roots and a system of checks and balances in place at the top level.

The president told Singapore's Strait Times newspaper in an interview carried on Wednesday that democracy in Pakistan had become dysfunctional in the past.

He pointed out that democracy did not exist actually at the grass roots and there were no institutionalized checks and balances. He said that both had now been corrected, referring to the local government system and the National Security Council.

He said the steps taken for what he called the sustainable genuine democracy in Pakistan were not 'personalized at all'.

"We have empowered the people through the local government system. They get the money and can develop their own districts. We've given the women fixed seats - 33 per cent of local government seats. Sixty National Assembly seats are reserved for women and they can contest openly with men also. Today, 73 women sit in our National Assembly - 13 have won through open elections," the president elaborated.

The minorities, he said, also had seats reserved for them at the lowest level.

Referring to the National Security Council, he said it would prevent personalized decisions. "I personally believe that the National Security Council will introduce sustainable democracy with checks on everyone."-APP