New Pakistan parliament convenes

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ISLAMABAD, Mar 17 (AP): Pakistan Monday inaugurated a new parliament dominated by opponents of President Pervez Musharraf who have vowed to crimp his powers and review his US-backed policies against Islamic militants.
At stake is the future course and political stability of this nuclear-armed nation of 160 million people, which is struggling with economic problems as well as militants linked to the Taliban and al-Qaida.
Just Saturday, a bomb exploded at an Islamabad restaurant popular with foreigners, killing a Turkish woman and wounding 12 people, including four FBI personnel. And Sunday, a missile attack targeting suspected militants in Pakistan's tribal regions was said to have killed about 20 people.
In a brief ceremony in the National Assembly, more than 300 of the newly elected lawmakers stood and repeated the oath of office at the prompting of the lower house's outgoing speaker.
Musharraf stayed away from the session, which marked the end of his eight-year domination of Pakistani politics. But Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, and Nawaz Sharif, a former prime minister whose government Musharraf ousted in a 1999 coup, watched from the gallery.
Their presence shows that "the people of Pakistan have rejected" Musharraf's takeover, said Ahsan Iqbal, a bespectacled lawmaker for Sharif's party.
"This is the first step for democracy," Bhutto's husband, Asif Ali Zardari, told reporters earlier. "Democracy is the last step for dictatorship."
Sen. Tariq Azim, a Musharraf loyalist, hailed the inauguration of the lower house as a "step toward political stability."
Bhutto's party, now led by Zardari, won the most seats in the Feb. 18 election, which delivered a resounding defeat to supporters of Musharraf.
Zardari's Pakistan People's Party plans to form a coalition with Sharif and a smaller group from the country's militancy-plagued northwest.