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LAHORE, Pakistan - Former premier Benazir Bhutto Friday rejected Pakistan's new caretaker government as "not acceptable" in her first comments since being freed from house arrest.
"This caretaker government is an extension of the PML-Q and is not acceptable," she told reporters, referring to President Pervez Musharraf's ruling party.
"We will not hold talks with dictators. Our agenda is the agenda of democracy."
Musharraf earlier Friday swore in an interim government under Mohammedmian Soomro, the chairman of the Senate and a close ally, to lead the country to general elections due by early January.
He has said the elections will be held under the state of emergency he declared on November 3, when he suspended the constitution, sacked the chief justice and imposed tight media curbs.
Bhutto, speaking inside an aide's house in the eastern city of Lahore where she had been held under house arrest since Tuesday, promised to step up her campaign to remove Musharraf from office.
"We are trying to bring a people's revolution. We want to end dictatorship with people's power. People's power is stronger than mountains," she said.
Bhutto had been involved in talks with Musharraf on a power-sharing deal before the imposition of emergency rule, but said earlier this week that the negotiations were off and that she would never work with him in government. - AFP/ir
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