Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said Friday that extremism and terrorism pose the only threat to Pakistan's sustained development, urging the masses to launch a movement to root out the menace.

"At this bright stage of economic turnaround, we need to keep up the momentum of socio-economic progress by effectively countering the forces of obscurantism and by extending support to enlightened and moderate leadership," the president Friday quoted was by the official Associated Press of Pakistan as saying when addressing a huge public meeting in southern Pakistan city of Bhawalpur.

"We need to remove impediments in the way of our continued economic growth by discarding the extremists," he said.

"We have to promote moderation, unity and peace for taking Pakistan forward on the path of socio-economic development," Musharraf said.

People must act against those who misuse mosques for giving rise to extremist tendencies of hatred, discord and intolerance, he said.

Source: Xinhua