ISLAMABAD, Nov 15: Former prime minister Benazir Bhutto said on Thursday that she hopes to form a government of national unity to replace Gen Pervez Musharraf before elections, and is contacting other opposition parties to get them on board.

“I am talking to the other opposition parties to find out whether they are in a position to come together,” she told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from the home in Lahore where she was under house arrest. “We need to see whether we can come up with an interim government of national consensus to whom power can be handed.”

Ms Bhutto left open the question of whether she, or someone else, would lead such a government, saying it was a subject that would have to be worked out in negotiations.

But she said a consensus must be reached that would ensure an orderly transition should Musharraf agree to step down. The general has so far refused, saying he plans to relinquish his role as army chief but remain on as president and head of state.

Ms Bhutto made the comments shortly after a visit at the surrounded Lahore residence from Bryan Hunt, the US consul general in the eastern Pakistani city.

She said Washington is concerned about a power vacuum in Pakistan, and wanted to know if she would still consider working with Musharraf.

“He came to find out whether I could work with Gen Musharraf, and I told him that it was very difficult to work with someone who instead of taking us toward democracy took us back toward military dictatorship,” she said.

Ms Bhutto said she tried to allay Washington’s concern about what would happen to this nuclear-armed nation if Musharraf was forced out, saying she shared the Americans’ misgivings and that a strategy for an orderly transition was a must.—AP