'It is true my party has been in negotiation with General Musharraf to try and find a modus vivendi and it has faltered because General Musharraf wants to involve personal life and politics together,' Benazir told me back in 2003. 'He says that “I will release your husband if you quit politics.” I said that's not the deal I want and the understanding has to be on the future direction of Pakistan, on the constitution.'

It is one of the ironies of history that Zardari has now emerged as a hot favourite to succeed Musharraf who is searching for a home in London, Turkey or Saudi Arabia. Yet it is of small comfort to the Bhutto family that western governments lining up to back Benazir's widower were once also loudest in their support of Musharraf.

'The more the West supports General Musharraf, the stronger the extremist forces grow and the moderate forces are being marginalised… and I don't think that's good for Pakistan,' was Benazir's comment about the man who overthrew the democratically elected government of Pakistan.

One year before she returned to Pakistan in 2007 to prepare for a power sharing deal with Musharraf, Benazir went to even greater lengths to tone down her previously critical comments about Musharraf. But in private she retained her distaste for the man who repeatedly threatened her and was responsible for the imprisonment of her husband.

In one of her key interviews with me, she underlined what she described as the insatiable appetite of 'greedy generals', including Musharraf, who had become the property tycoons of Islamabad. 'Just yesterday I heard that Musharraf has taken with his generals 10 acres,' Benazir told me in an exclusive 2003 interview. 'He and four others… have taken 10 acres in Islamabad. I never even took one square yard in Islamabad.'

'Look at the house where I was born and look at the house Musharraf was born in. Look at the school I went to and look at his school. Look at the house I lived in before I got married and look at the house he lived in after he got married.'

'Today he has got so much real estate. Where did he get it from? Where does he get the money from? His military salary is not very much. He has benefited from the state. Because I speak about accountability in the army, because I speak about the armed forces reforming themselves and going back to the austere lifestyles of General Tikka (Khan) and General (Naseerullah) Babar (a former interior minister), the greedy generals don't like it.'

Years earlier when Benazir encountered Musharraf for the first time, he was a brigadier and acted as her translator during a meeting with a visiting Turkish delegation. Asked for her personal impressions of Musharraf and his reported passion for drinking whisky and rearing dogs, Benazir responded, 'I don't know about the whisky drinking and the dog-loving because I didn't see him with his dogs or drink whisky. But he was my translator. He was very bright and smart and then after that he was very close to General Hamid Gul who was the Multan corps commander. So when they had this exercise called Zarb-e-Momin – the Wound of the Believer – he was my conducting officer.'

Musharraf came up in conversation again in 2004 following A.Q. Khan's televised confession that he had participated in the export of nuclear weapons technology to so-called 'Axis of Evil' states.

When asked if rogue elements within Pakistan's ruling elite together with Khan were responsible for proliferating deadly nuclear technology to countries like Libya and North Korea, Benazir responded, 'What rogue issue? I know that the world has accepted Musharraf's explanation that it was the rogue issue, but I suspect it was Musharraf because the time lag I am looking at puts Libya and North Korea squarely under Musharraf's watch as chief of army staff and chief executive of Pakistan and it is Musharraf who goes to Libya in February 2000.'

Avoiding any reference to her personal role in physically carrying top secret nuclear data to Pyongyang, Benazir added: 'Basically, if Libya and North Korea happened under Musharraf's watch, then it is a nightmare scenario for the West. Because then it turns out their key ally has been helping with what they call their 'Axis of Evil'. Not what I call, what they call.'

'I find they (the West) are unprepared to accept that Musharraf did this, they are prepared to accept that Qadeer Khan did it, either to save Musharraf the embarrassment, or to permit Musharraf to cover up for his colleagues.'

It was Benazir's assessment, which she continued to hold until her untimely demise late last year, that Musharraf's continued survival would depend on the support he received from both Washington and the Pakistan Army high command, but it was the support of his fellow officers that would be the telling factor.

'You know Yahya Khan went to Ayub and said, “Go home sir”,' she explained. 'General Gul Hasan went to Yahya and said, “Go home sir” and he had to. General Zia died and if he was killed, it was by his own men because nobody else could get near to him as the security was so high. General Asif Nawaz died and again if he was killed it means that his own men felt they needed a change. Karamat (former army chief General Jehangir Karamat) himself resigned and Musharraf himself was about to be killed in a plane crash.'

Benazir's most devastating critique of Musharraf, the man she described as 'quite a jolly officer initially' was linked to her disclosure of how he hatched a plan to infiltrate an area 'similar to Kargil' that would be the first step in an overall strategy to conquer Srinagar, the capital of India's northern state of Jammu and Kashmir.

'He was my director general military operations and he presented me a plan in front of 50 officers about how the Mujahideen would infiltrate an area similar to Kargil and how they would bring about a war,' Benazir disclosed.

'The Indians wouldn't be able to dislocate us and so they would be forced to fight a second front by attacking Pakistan – at which time the international community would intervene and we'd take Srinagar.' 'I said to him, “General what would happen the day after we take Srinagar” and he said: 'I don't know what you mean.' He said 'I don't understand your question.'

'I said, “General, they'll tell me take your troops back,” but I think he personally doesn't like me because of that confrontation that he and I had in GHQ on the Kargil issue.'

'But believe me I had to have that confrontation because if I did not have that confrontation the blood of 3,000 soldiers would be on my hands. I did not allow it, but after I was overthrown they went ahead with the Kargil folly and 3,000 of our young boys, our officers and men, the best in our army, died. So many on the Indian side died, there was so much bitterness. The whole world had to intervene to stop it escalating into a potentially nuclear war.'

'So I'm told that he personally doesn't like me for that reason, although other people tell me he's personable … He once spoke to me and he said he has nothing against me. This was just in the run-up to the (2002) elections.'

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