Pakistan?s new National Assembly was sworn in yesterday, setting the scene for a showdown with President Pervez Musharraf a month after his opponents swept a general election.

Musharraf?s allies were routed in the February 18 vote, and he is faced with the prospect of inviting the victors, led by Bhutto?s Pakistan People?s Party (PPP) to form a coalition that could drive him from power. Pakistan?s Western allies and neighbours fear a confrontation between the president and a new government will herald more upheavals in a nuclear-armed state reeling from a wave of militant bombings.

Security was tight outside parliament with police and paramilitary soldiers guarding the complex and restricting traffic on the avenue outside. In a sign of looming confrontation with the isolated president, a PPP member said members were taking their oaths under an old, democratic constitution, not the version Musharraf amended after he imposed emergency rule in November. A member of the PPP?s main coalition partner, the party led by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, denounced Musharraf?s 1999 coup in which he ousted Sharif.

The February election saw the PPP emerging with the most seats in the 342-member National Assembly but not enough to rule alone. Sharif?s party came second, dealing a crushing defeat to the pro-Musharraf Pakistan Muslim League. Sharif and Asif Ali Zardari, Bhutto?s widower and political successor, signed an agreement this month to form a coalition with a small regional party. Neither Zardari nor Sharif stood in the election but both turned up at parliament to watch the proceedings together from the visitors? gallery.

?It?s the first step for democracy. We have sent this message to the world that democracy should be helped and democracy is the last day of dictatorship,? Zardari told reporters.

The two main coalition party leaders have vowed to reinstate judges the president dismissed when he imposed a six-week stint of emergency rule in November.

If reinstated, the judges are expected to reopen legal challenges to Musharraf?s re-election as president by legislators in October while he was still army chief.