afghanistanPakistan with a propaganda coup, with tribal elders giving interviews with
the Pakistani press and on radio programmes in which they denounced
Da’ud’s government and accused it of abandoning Islam and selling out
to the atheistic Soviets.
Communist sympathizers then exploited the Islamic opposition
to Da’ud’s social reforms in order to destroy their ideological enemies.
Around the time of the Kandahar riots Babrak Karmal, who had already
spent time in prison for anti-government agitation, informed Da’ud that
Sibghat Allah Mujadidi, a relative of the Hazrat of Shor Bazaar, planned to
assassinate the Soviet premier, Khrushchev, during his forthcoming state
visit. 40 Sibghat Allah and other Islamists were arrested along with several
army officers. From this point forward Da’ud developed a cooperative
relationship with Babrak and other Leftists in his attempt to undermine
his Islamic opponents.
By the spring of 1963 Da’ud’s closure of the Pakistan–Afghan frontier
had created a self-inflicted economic crisis in Afghanistan. There were
shortages of essential commodities and rampant inflation. With foreign
currency reserves at an all-time low, the government struggled to meet its
mounting foreign debt repayments. Merchants, senior Muhammadzais
and foreign diplomats urged Da’ud to negotiate with Pakistan and reopen
the frontier, but he refused to back down. Finally, on 10 March 1963, Zahir
Shah dismissed Da’ud and Na‘im with the backing of his uncle Shah Wali
Khan and General ‘Abd al-Wali Khan, Shah Wali’s son. The two brothers,
however, were not exiled to some distant diplomatic mission, but were
allowed to remain in Kabul. This was a serious misjudgement on the king’s
part for Da’ud, enraged at his dismissal, began to plot the downfall of
Zahir Shah and developed a closer alliance with Babrak Karmal and his
Marxist–Leninist allies.
The 1964 Constitution and the establishment of political partiesDr Muhammad Yusuf, the new prime minister, was a German-educated
physicist. In an attempt to make the government more inclusive and less
like a family business, he appointed several technocrats and dynastic out -
siders. One of Yusuf ’s first actions was to fly to Tehran to ask King Reza Shah
to mediate in the dispute with Pakistan. A face-saving deal was eventually
brokered, diplomatic relations were restored and the frontier reopened. In
March 1965 Afghanistan signed a five-year transit agreement with Pakistan.
Prime Minister Yusuf went on public record that he wanted Afghanistan
to develop a two-party political system and the king established a committee