ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistan today inaugurated a new parliament dominated by opponents of President Pervez Musharraf who have vowed to crimp his powers and review his U.S.-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 and militants linked to the Taliban and al-Qaida.

Just Saturday, a bomb exploded at an Islamabad restaurant , killing a Turkish woman and wounding 12 people.

In a brief ceremony in the National Assembly, more than 300 of the newly elected lawmakers stood and repeated the oath of office.

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.