Musharraf readies caretaker govt.

Islamabad, Pakistan: President Gen. Pervez Musharraf and his aides were finalizing a caretaker government Thursday, while his two opposition rivals opened talks on forming an alliance against him.

Nov. 15 marks the end of the current Parliament's five-year term. Musharraf's concurrent presidential mandate also expires Thursday, though he has extended it by calling a state of emergency that has cast Pakistan into a deep political crisis.

The caretaker administration will be charged with guiding Pakistan toward parliamentary elections to be held by Jan. 9.

A senior Cabinet minister said that Mohammedmian Soomro, chairman of the upper house of Parliament, was a strong candidate for the key position of caretaker prime minister.

"I see him as the caretaker prime minister, but any final decision will be announced by President Musharraf," Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad told The Associated
Press.

Pakistani media say that a retired general serving as ambassador to Turkey, Iftikhar Hussein Shah, and a former central bank governor, Ishrat Hussain, are also in the
running.

State television said an announcement was expected later Thursday.

The vote is supposed to complete the restoration of democratic rule in Pakistan, eight years after Musharraf seized power in a bloodless coup.