Royalist Pressure Ebbs

Reactions to the lifelong honorary status for King Zahir Shah proposed in the constitution now under review at the Loya Jirga, or national assembly, indicate that controversy over his role has dampened down since the Emergency Loya Jirga held 18 months ago.

At the June 2001 meeting, after standing aside as a presidential candidate, Zahir Shah was awarded the title Father of the Nation, which carried with it a number of honorary and ceremonial roles. Article 156 of the draft constitution now confirms these roles and privileges for his lifetime.

The factions which used to be part of the mujahedin had fiercely opposed such recognition, arguing that throughout the years of conflict, the king lived in exile in Italy, offering little support to the resistance against communist rule in the Eighties.

A senior member of one of those grouping, the powerful Jamiat-e-Islami party, has now indicated a readiness to compromise on the issue. But Mohammad Sadiq Chakari, who is a delegate at the Constitutional Loya Jirga, also wants his group’s own heroes to receive recognition.

“We accept the title of Father of the Nation, but they should also provide titles for jihadi commanders and [Northern Alliance commander] Ahmad Shah Massoud in the constitution,” he said.

The head of Jamiat’s cultural section, Abdul Sahkoor Waqef Hakimi, is pleased that at least the matter is going to a formal vote this time, since it was approved with a quick show of hands at the first Loya Jirga.

Some delegates still insist that the king – who is in his 80s – could still play a useful stabilising role, and believe he should be given real constitutional powers.

Aziz Ahmad Asef, secretary general of Afghan Millat, a party largely dominated by Pashtuns – the ethnic group from which Zahir Shah came – argues that the four decades of Zahir Shah’s reign were the most peaceful that the country has known, and that he could now promote unity.

Azizullah Wasefi, a delegate from Kandahar who is deputy chairman of the monarchist Milli Wahdat party agreed, saying, “The title Father of the Nation doesn’t mean anything. The former king returned to Afghanistan at the request of the people, and he should definitely have a political role.”

In Kabul, elderly people tend to be the biggest supporters of the king. Engineer Wali, 60, told IWPR, “I think the privileges given to the former king are not sufficient. In Afghanistan there should be a constitutional monarchy in which the head should be the former king or his followers, so that armed [conflict] and self-interest will be finished.”

Wali believes that monarchy would be the system most suited to Afghanistan’s needs over the next century.

One veteran Loya Jirga participant who remembers the king’s rule well, 70-year-old Haji Ghulam Sakhi, feels that times have changed and Afghanistan needs a more modern political system. Sakhi, from the remote eastern province of Nuristan, who was also a Loya Jirga delegate in Zahir Shah’s day, has changed his mind about the king’s importance.

Though the king’s era was peaceful, reviving the monarchy won't solve today’s security problems, he said.

"The world has developed and improved, and Afghan people have also changed,” he explained. “So if the people's rights are to be restored, a democratic system is better."

Sakhi says he now wants a parliamentary system, with a prime minister who can be ousted if he doesn’t do a good job.

His change of attitude may reflect a broader trend. He estimates that whereas more than two-thirds of the delegates at the previous Loya Jirga wanted the king back in power, now only around 40 per cent would support that.

Zahir Shah, the last in a 250-year line of monarchs from the Durrani Pashtuns, was overthrown in 1973 in a bloodless coup. Before that, the 1964 constitution had enshrined his considerable powers as an unaccountable sovereign.

The powers he enjoyed then – appointing prime ministers, signing treaties and declaring war – are mostly vested in the president by the draft constitution.

Zahir Shah returned to Kabul to widespread adulation in April 2002 in the euphoria that followed the fall of the Taleban. His reign, during which women’s education was promoted and Kabul became a relatively cosmopolitan centre, was eulogised as a time of peace and prosperity.

Nearly two years on, with the interim administration in charge, the mood on the streets appears less insistent about restoring the monarchy, although a lingering affection remains for Zahir Shah personally.

“The Father of the Nation is just a symbol of national unity and because his [remaining] lifespan is not long, he can’t play any political role,” said 42-year-old Kabuli shopkeeper Mohammad Zaher Eshanzada.

Mohammad Sadiq Pathman, a member of the commission which drafted the constitution, sees regional variations in the level of royalist support.

“The people of Nangarhar and the south [Pashtun-dominated areas] are for a constitutional monarchy, the people of Kabul want a parliamentary system which has a prime minister. In the north, some want a federal government,” he said.

Wahidullah Amani and Rahimullah Samander are participants in IWPR’s Constitutional Loya Jirga reporting project. Mustafa Basharat provided additional reporting.