Benazir Bhutto, under house arrest and barricaded in by riot police, finally ruled out a power-sharing deal with President Musharraf of Pakistan yesterday, calling for him to quit and saying that she could never work with him.

Miss Bhutto, a former Prime Minister, urged the world to abandon General Musharraf after she was put under house arrest in the eastern city of Lahore to prevent a planned motorcade protest to Islamabad, the capital. She also said that her Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) was likely to boycott the parliamentary elections that the General has promised by January 9, and would join other opposition leaders to restore democracy.

“It is time for him to go. He must quit as President,” she said as police detained dozens more of her supporters on the tenth day of a state of emergency. “There are no circumstances in which I could see myself serving with General Musharraf.” Until yesterday, Miss Bhutto had left a door open for the power-sharing deal, which she has been negotiating for more than a year, backed by the United States and Britain. She had previously demanded only that General Musharraf should retire as army chief, lift emergency rule, restore the Constitution and release thousands of detained opponents.

Her change of tack suggested that the PPP, the largest opposition party, would take a more active role in the anti-emergency protests, which have so far been spearheaded by lawyers.

In the southern city of Karachi her supporters opened fire on two police stations and officers used teargas to disperse demonstrators. Other opposition leaders welcomed her announcement, including Nawaz Sharif, the exiled former Prime Minister who returned to Pakistan in September only to be deported to Saudi Arabia.

“I think it is a positive development and a step toward achieving the objectives of the opposition,” he said.

It was less welcome news for the United States and Britain, which have been trying to broker the power-

sharing deal to give Pakistan’s Government a broader mandate to tackle Islamic extremism. The United States, which backs General Musharraf as a key ally in the War on Terror, said that it was sending John Negroponte, its Deputy Secretary of State, to Islamabad at the end of the week. The State Department said that he would ask General Musharraf to end the emergency and hold free and fair elections.

David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, warned General Musharraf that Pakistan could be expelled from the Commonwealth if the emergency were not lifted within ten days. General Musharraf has not set a date for ending the emergency, but has promised to step down as army chief after the Supreme Court endorses his victory in a presidential election.

The court — newly packed with loyalists — is expected to do that by the end of the week. But there are signs of growing concern among senior army officers that the crisis is slipping out of control. “When it comes to the crunch, the Army will act in its own interest,” one senior officer said.

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