India reserves comment on Pak polls, wishes people peace, stability

Kolkata, Feb 19 (UNI) Union Minister of State for External Affairs Anand Sharma today said India was not going to make any observation on the political changes in Pakistan, but wished the people peace, and stability.

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's opponents looked set to have an advantage going by the trends though counting was continuing with results still awaited from almost 100 seats, in the 342-seat National Assembly.

Asked to comment about the political change in Pakistan, Sharma said, '' We are not going to make any judicious observations nor make any prescriptive suggestions.'' On the polls in general in Pakistan, he said, ''We hope that the people get peace, stability and democracy. Pakistan is our neighbour. We hope for the people of Pakistan the democratic institutions and process are consolidated in future.'' '' We have a special relationship with Pakistan and India wants it to have peace and stability, so that both the countries can share the benefits of economic growth,'' he said.

Reacting to Fidel Castro's retirement, he said, ''We are not going to comment about that. It's their country.'' Cuba's Fidel Castro announced his retirement today after almost half a century. Fidel Castro was the world's third longest-serving head of state, after Britain's Queen Elizabeth and the King of Thailand. He was not been seen in public as illness forced him to hand over day-to-day control of the country to his brother Raul Castro in July 2006.

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