PAKISTAN EXPRESSES GRIEF OVER DEMISE OF FIDEL CASTRO

Pakistan has expressed deep grief and sorrow over the sad demise of former Cuban President Fidel Castro.

In a statement on Saturday, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz said the government and the people of Pakistan condole to the government and the people of Cuba on this irreparable loss.

The Advisor said that late President steered his nation through numerous daunting challenges with statesmanship, honour and dignity.

He said Pak-Cuba relations touched new heights under his dynamic leadership.

Fidel Castro, the Cuban revolutionary leader who built a communist state on the doorstep of the US, died at the age of 90. Raul Castro, Fidel's brother and current president of Cuba, announced his death on state television in Havana early on Saturday.

The leader of the 1959 revolution, which overthrew the US-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista, defied the US efforts to topple him for five decades, before ill health led him to make way for his brother Raul, 84, in 2006.

In his final years, Fidel lived in relative seclusion, but occasionally wrote opinion pieces or appeared to meet visiting dignitaries.