India has congratulated Nawaz Sharif, president of the Pakistan Muslim League, for winning the election held on Saturday, local media said Monday.

Pakistan so far has not announced the official results of the election.

Congratulating Sharif on his "emphatic victory", Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said "The people of India welcome your publicly articulated commitment to a relationship between India and Pakistan that is defined by peace, friendship and cooperation. I look forward to working with you and your government."

Sharif, a two-time prime minister, has also promised to improve relations with India, including resuming talks on Kashmir and an investigation into the alleged role of Pakistan's spy agency, ISI, in the 2008 Mumbai attacks.

"We will pick the threads from where we left. We want to move toward better relations with India, to resolve the remaining issues through peaceful means, including that of Kashmir," said the 63-year-old leader whose family moved from Amritsar, northwest India, to Pakistan at the 1947 Partition of the Indian Sub- continent.