The party of slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto won the most seats in the election. It plans to form a coalition with the party of another former premier, Nawaz Sharif, and a smaller party from the northwest - where Taliban-style militants pose an increasing threat. Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party has said its top priority will be to seek a UN investigation into her death in a gun-and-suicide-bomb attack on December 27.

The coalition also hopes to amend the constitution to strip Musharraf of his power to dissolve the country’s parliament and to dismiss the prime minister. The National Security Council, which gives the military a formal say in policy, may also be axed.

The coalition’s most explosive plan is the restoration of some 60 senior judges who were purged from the courts by Musharraf when he declared emergency rule last November.

Musharraf has shown no sign of heeding calls from Sharif, the prime minister ousted in Musharraf’s 1999 coup, to resign.

Members of the former ruling party point to how Sharif and Bhutto fought bitterly for power in the 1990s to argue that the newfound unity of their parties could prove short-lived. A debate is already brewing over who should be prime minister. Makhdoom Amin Fahim, a longtime Bhutto loyalist who was the initial front-runner, is resisting pressure from Sharif’s party to withdraw from the race.

Meanwhile, Musharraf has found his outside support is diminishing as well. Just months ago, the United States publicly championed Musharraf as an “indispensable” ally. Now, officials in the US government barely mention him while working to gain the favour of the newly empowered parties, even though officials say they still intend to work with the former army chief.