Kabul - Mohammad Zahir Shah - the last king of Afghanistan,
who ushered in a 1964 constitution that brought democracy to
Afghanistan before a coup forced him into exile - died on Monday
morning at the age of 92.
Crowned in 1933 at 19 after witnessing the assassination of his
father, Zahir Shah put into effect a constitution that made
Afghanistan a constitutional monarchy with free elections and
universal suffrage, a parliament and the emancipation of women.
He kept Afghanistan neutral through World War II and the Cold War
before a coup led by a cousin deposed him after 40 years on the
throne, ending a 226-year Pashtun dynasty. As his country descended
into violence in the following decades, Zahir Shah lived quietly in a
villa outside Rome.
He only returned to Afghanistan in 2002 after a US-led invasion
ousted the country's fundamentalist Islamic Taliban regime. His reign
was remembered with nostalgia by many Afghans as a long period of
peace. Monarchists called for his restoration to the throne, but he
refused.
Instead, a postwar 'loya jirga,' a traditional council of tribal
elders, declared him the 'Father of the Nation,' but he said a title
given to him by the people was his favourite.
'They call me 'Baba', which means grandfather or father.' he said.
'That is the title I like best.'
Zahir Shah, who was reportedly bedridden since the beginning of the
year, died of natural causes at 5:45 am Monday morning in the Royal
Palace in Kabul, President Hamid Karzai told a press conference.
'He was the symbol of national unity, he was founder of democracy
in Afghanistan', Karzai said, 'I hope Afghanistan sees the
fulfillment of the biggest wish of the Father of the Nation which was
peace in the country.'
Karzai described the former monarch as a man who believed in the
rule of the people, in their freedom and in the rights of humanity.
General Abdul Wali, the former king's first cousin, his son-in-law
and his chief of army staff told dpa by phone, 'We lost our beloved
one; no one can fill his place for me or for Afghanistan.'
Born October 16, 1914, in Kabul, the future king was educated in
France and the Afghan capital before succeeding his father, Mohammed
Nadir Shah. For most of his reign, he served as a figurehead as two
of his uncles effectively ran the government as prime ministers until
1953.
This period was one of stability for Afghanistan, yet there was
also much opposition to Afghan's Pashtun king, particularly among
other ethnic groups, who had suffered under his predecessors'
suppression. Many segments also resented the opulence in which the
king lived while much of the rest of the population subsisted in
abject poverty.
In 1953, a rival branch of his family succeeded in winning the
premiership for Muhammad Daoud, Zahir Shah's cousin, who took the
country closer to the Soviet Union.
The king forced out Daoud in 1963 and took control of the
government himself. A constitution followed the next year that
guaranteed civil rights and freedom of the press, gave women the
right to vote and barred the royal family from holding high-level
government posts.
'I don't think that the country can govern itself well without the
participation and the free will of the people of that land, and,
therefore, democracy is essential to society,' Zahir Shah said in a
2002 CNN interview.
The king sought to modernize Afghanistan politically and
economically and ushered in education for women, but his efforts met
with opposition from religious fundamentalists. Factionalism and
political infighting limited reforms.
Afghanistan also continued as an impoverished country with little
development and infrastructure outside Kabul. In the early 1970s,
drought and famine struck, and tribal disputes continued to be
commonplace.
His reign ended while he was travelling in Italy in July 1973 when
Daoud carried out a bloodless coup in Kabul. Afghanistan was declared
a republic and Daoud its president.
While Zahir Shah took up residence outside Rome, his country was
plagued by instability. Daoud died in a coup in 1978 that brought to
power a communist government. The Soviet invasion followed the next
year to prop up the weak regime, and a war between the Soviets and
mujahedin guerrilla forces lasted until the 1989 Soviet withdrawal.
Factional fighting for control of the country then erupted until
the Taliban militia established itself as the power in most of the
country, capturing Kabul in 1996 and offering a haven for the
al-Qaeda terrorist network.
The Taliban was ousted in a US-led invasion of the country that
began shortly after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the
United States.
During this time, the peace Zahir Shah enjoyed in Italy was broken
only in 1991 when he was stabbed three times by an unknown assailant.
Celebrations met his return to Afghanistan in April 2002. Zahir
Shah opened the postwar loya jirga at a time when he was seen as a
figure behind which his fractured country might unify. He initially
said that although he did not want to be restored to the throne, he
would seek the presidency.
'I have not come to restore monarchy, but I would like to be close
to my countrymen again and help them address the problems in
Afghanistan,' he said.
He later stepped back from his campaign, a move many saw as a
result of pressure from the United States.
The former king then put his support behind his fellow Pashtun and
the US-backed candidate, Hamid Karzai, who became interim president
and then in 2004 was elected president.
Zahir Shah's wife and queen, Homaira Shah, did not enjoy his
homecoming. The mother of his nine children was too ill to travel and
died in Rome at 84, two months after his arrival.
The former king spent his remaining days at the Royal Palace in
Kabul, receiving audiences, taking walks around the palace gardens
and seldom leaving the capital.
'I have come to spend the rest of my life with my people,' he had
said when he returned to that palace in 2002.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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