afghanistanwas recently allowed to return to Afghanistan. Meanwhile in his absence
northern Badghis, southern Faryab and Sar-i Pul provinces have been once
more overrun by anti-government insurgents, who massacred dozens of
Hazaras in the Band-i Sar-i Band region of Sayyid district in August 2017.
Needless to say, the provincial security forces were notable by their absence.
Karzai’s appointment of royalists, including members of the Saraj and
Tarzi families, was not well received by former mujahidin commanders.
Most of these individuals had been living in North America or various
European countries since the 1970s and had little understanding of the
radical transformation that Afghan society had undergone in the last thirty
years. Their return to Afghanistan was therefore a major culture shock but
they did their best to pick up where they or their fathers had left off, only to
alienate the population by their haughtiness and demand for the traditional
ta‘ruf, deference. Former mujahidin commanders who were dismissed as
a result of these appointments openly despised such individuals who, as
far as they were concerned, had lived a comfortable life abroad while they
had risked everything fighting the might of the Red Army.
Karzai’s attempt to turn the clock back to the 1960s was exemplified
by other actions too. The 2004 Constitution restored the sheaf and shrine
motif on the national flag and the Constitution reinstated the cumber-
some parliamentary system of Wolusi Jirga, Meshrano Jirga and Loya Jirga.
The former king, Zahir Shah, returned to Afghanistan and despite the
Constitution designating Afghanistan as an Islamic Republic, it accorded
him the honorary title of Baba-yi Millat, Father of the Nation. At the Loya
Jirga in 2002 President Karzai unilaterally declared Zahir Shah to be the
Honorary Chairman of the National Assembly, which meant he was in a
position to influence the drafting of the new Constitution. When Zahir
Shah died in July 2007 he was accorded a state funeral with full military
honours and was buried beside his father, Nadir Shah, in his restored
mausoleum on Tepe Maranjan. When the remains of President Da’ud and
his family were located in a mass grave near Pul-i Charkhi, they too were
given a state funeral. Even Karzai’s propensity to wear the chapan, the
long-sleeved coat worn by Uzbeks, and a karakul hat was a throwback to
the era of Zahir Shah.
Attempts by the international community to create a more broadly
based, representative government were subverted by powerful vested
interests. The Loya Jirga of June 2002, which was mandated by the Bonn
Agreement to elect an interim President, consisted of individuals nomin-
ated by elected provincial councils and appointees nominated by the Loya
Jirga Commission: 160 seats were reserved for women, but most of these