India 'regrets' emergency rule in Pakistan

NEW DELHI: India said on Saturday it regrets the declaration of a state of emergency in Pakistan and hopes normality will soon be restored there.   

The reaction came shortly after Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf declared a state of emergency amid spiralling political turmoil and Islamist violence.   

"We regret the difficult times that Pakistan is passing through," Indian foreign ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna said in New Delhi. "We trust that conditions of normalcy will soon return, permitting Pakistan's transition to stability and democracy to continue," Sarna said.   

India's junior foreign minister Anand Sharma, meanwhile, said New Delhi wanted democracy to be restored in tension-ridden Pakistan. "We wish them stability and we look forward to conditions which will facilitate conditions for democracy to be restored in that country," Sharma told reporters.    "India and Pakistan have engaged each other in a meaningful exercise to improve relations and to better understanding and that must improve.   

"We want peace and stability in our entire neighbourhood and that's why we were engaging in a constructive dialogue with Pakistan which has shown results," the foreign minister said. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh meanwhile called Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee for talks to monitor developments in India's neighbour, officials added.   

The two nuclear-armed South Asian rivals, which have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir since their 1947 independence, launched talks three years ago in a bid to improve ties.